I'm With You
by StoryBard
Summary: Gaara was kidnapped when he was five. Naruto when he was nine. Eight years later, Naruto is saved, and has to venture out to different dimensions to find Gaara, and stop Madara's plan to throw the universe into chaos. AU/AR
1. Prologue

**Title**: I'm With You

**Author**: LadySable (LiveJournal)/StoryBard(here)

**Pairings**: See author's note below.

**Rating**: T

**WARNING**: This will have heterosexual and homosexual pairings. If either offend you, this is not the story for you. **TRIGGERS**: This chapter will have **child kidnapping**.

**Disclaimer**: The characers are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not make money from this fan made work.

**Summary**: Gaara was kidnapped when he was five. Naruto when he was nine. Eight years later, Naruto is saved, and has to venture out to different dimensions to find Gaara, and stop Madara's plan to throw the universe into chaos.

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue: When the Universe Shifts<strong>

It was a cloudy day, but these clouds hovered, a waste of moisture and air. They never poured down with rain or lightening, nor did they part to let even a trace of the sun through. Yet, for the city of Stagnare, that was normal. The eyes of the people had gotten so used to the immortal clouds that if even a peek of sunlight came through, they would be blinded.

The town was stagnant. The people never moved on, nor did they move backwards. It was a rare thing to laugh, to cry. No one was interested in furthering their positions in life, apathetic to any new technology, new people, new feelings.

Gaara hated it.

The people just flowed around him, avoiding him, caring very little that he could reach out and touch them, and they would be dead in an instant. At least at his old town they went out of their way to avoid him. That meant he existed, and was to be avoided, but this, this place didn't even care that he existed. The entire town reflected the gray clouds. It was everywhere, even when someone wore a bright red, it just bled into the sea of gray, drained of its vibrant nature.

He was distracted from his grocery shopping when he noticed a bright yellow bobbing in the sea of gray. The boy blinked, as the color strained his eyes for a moment, so used to the drab gray, that the bright color blinded him. The yellow flashed in and around, weaving around people. The seafoam colored eyes focused on it, followed it, and tried to figure out its pattern, but decided that it had no system; it was random.

He kept his eyes on the bright yellow, and tried to follow it, only to bump into someone.

The sudden contact caused him to freeze, and he looked up, waiting for the large person towering over him to fall down, dead. Instead, he shivered as strange eyes watched him. The man squatted down, and placed his hand on Gaara's head, and looked him in the eye.

"Hello, little boy," the man said, almost robotic. The boy shivered, wanting to be far away from this man, and yet, enjoyed the feeling of being touched for the first time. The thought that he should be dead was far away. "How old are you?"

Gaara looked down, and then back up, and with a nervous bite to his lip, said "Five."

The man grinned, and the hairs rose on the red head's neck. He moved his hand away from the red hair, trailing it down to the pale right arm, tracing the tattooed numbers: 001. "Perfect," he breathed.

Then they were gone, the grocery list that fell out of Gaara's hand the only thing that showed he was even there. The apathetic people walking around may have blinked in surprised, but dismissed it, uninterested.

The yellow flash that the sea-foam eyes had followed, zipped by a minute later, and then paused, right next to the abandoned grocery list. The bright blue eyes frowned, and looked down. He picked up the grocery list, and shook off the uneasy feeling he was getting. Then he walked over to a trash can, and threw the list away, muttering, "People shouldn't litter."

* * *

><p>Nothing changed in the four years since that incident. The sky was still a dull gray, and the people still matched it.<p>

Naruto was sniggering in a dull green bush, his bright yellow hair sticking out, giving away his position. His prank was going to work this time, he was sure of it, no one was able to not get angry over this one.

He held a string, and as he saw his victim walked up, he pulled it, tightening the string. He watched as the woman, someone he didn't know, walked up, and broke the string. His eyes brightened as he watched bright yellow paint splatter the woman's expensive red dress.

The woman looked down at her dress, unconcerned, and then continued on her way.

Naruto watched as uncaring eyes looked at him for a split second, and then turned away, uninterested. The blond couldn't even wonder at their apathy, as it was something he was accustomed to. If one of them had even gasped, or blinked, or did something, it gave him a reason to do another prank. Anything would work, but nothing happened, and they didn't care. It was officially his 101 prank, and he still got the same reaction as the first one.

He got up, a heavy weariness to his body, and wandered down the street, careful of touching people. The only time someone spoke to him was to remind him that his touch was death. That to touch people caused them to vanish forever. Yet, no one cared. They were careful not to touch him, but no one avoided him, no one cared that he could reach out and touch them, and they were gone, their life meaningless.

He stopped by a park, and sat on a decaying bench, and stared up at the gray clouds. He groaned, and wondered why people who wrote books thought watching clouds together was fun. The clouds didn't move or make shapes like they said they did. They weren't white or fluffy, just a sallow yellow-gray that matched the city.

The city held nothing. There was no hope of becoming a better person, no trying to move on to a better position, and what position was better? Naruto always wondered about what he was going to do when he grew up, but there didn't seem to be anything. No grand position that would make people look at him, nothing that amazed or wowed people. The only thing he knew to do was create pranks.

He was musing on whether that yellow cloud right next to the gray cloud had moved, when a shadow fell across him. Naruto blinked up and saw a man with bright orange hair and weird piercings towering over him. His eyes were a strange color and had multiple rings.

Naruto scrambled up, fear buzzing through his body.

"Hello, little boy," the man said, and patted his head, hard. Naruto wanted to shy away from the touch, but it was nice, then he froze.

He looked up at the man, "Y-You should be dead."

The man blinked, then said, "I can resist your virus."

"Resist?" Naruto asked, the word not connecting in his mind.

"How old are you?" The man asked, lowering his hand to the numbered tattoo on Naruto's right arm, 009.

"Uh, nine?" Naruto said, then double checked it himself. "Yeah, my birth certificate says nine," he confirmed when the screen came out.

"Would you like to come with me?"

"Where?" Naruto asked rubbing his right arm, fidgeting as the screen slid into his chest plate, and dissappeared.

"It's a nice place. People can touch you without dying."

"Really?" Naruto said, he gave an energetic smile, his eyes shining up at the orange haired man. Then he frowned, "But I'm not supposed to go with strangers, or at least that's what they said at school."

"I'm not a stranger, I'm taking you to a relative of your family."

"Family?" Naruto frowned. "Why now, then?"

The orange haired man blinked, scooped him up, and then they were gone.

* * *

><p>Naruto wriggled and squirmed in the man's tight grip, but everything he did was to no avail. The man's arm was stronger than a bar of iron, and Naruto's Life System was never updated or given applications that could get him out of a situation like this.<p>

He banged on the man's chest, wondering if he could break the man's Life System, but was shocked when he hit flesh instead of the tough plastic that made up their Life System. "What are you?" he asked the man, afraid.

"I am Pain."

Naruto tried to swallow the sudden fear that tightened his throat.

He looked up as they reached a tall tower. It was the only building in the entire wasteland they crossed, and it was enormous. He tried to find it in his System, but it brought up a blank. "Where are we?" he asked, his fear prominent in his voice.

"We are in god's hands now," Pain said as he entered the tower.

The corridor's were a blur, and then they were in a clear tube, air pushing up on the platform. Naruto didn't know how many floors they passed, but he was pretty sure that, by the time they stopped, they were at the top.

Pain stepped out of the tube with an ease of familiarity, but Naruto gulped as he looked down, and could see the dizzy height they were at, glad that Pain was still carrying him, or he wouldn't have wanted to take that step across the huge gap between the tube and floor.

Pain strode down a corridor, and then stopped in front of large double doors. He entered, and Naruto's eyes widened as he took in the high ceiling and the stained glass window behind a large chair. It reminded him of the churches that were built a thousand years ago that were in his history book. A man sat in the chair, and he had tubes plugged into him. Next to him was a woman, who had an apathetic look about her.

The man coughed, and said, "Is that the Kyuubi vessel?"

"Yes," Pain said, dropping Naruto, who landed on his bottom, a soft moan wheezed out of his mouth.

"Jerk," the blond muttered, gathering his courage. He wasn't no ninny that was scared easy.

"He has the tattoo?"

"Yes."

"Put him in the isolated cell until we get the rest of them. Keep him completely isolated, I don't want anybody near him."

"Wha-?" Naruto said, the fear coming back, and he scooted away as Pain leaned down to pick him back up. He backed into something, and he looked up, eyes wide in fear. The woman looked down at him with a clinical observation. Then he was grabbed by Pain.

"You can't do this," Naruto screamed, pounding on Pain. "I didn't do anything!"

"You exist," the man in the chair told him, and Naruto froze in Pain's arms. Then the man dismissed him, and said, "Konan, tell Zetsu to remove his clones from Stagnare, and start moving in real people. Our mission is complete, and we need the town to start moving forward."

Then the door closed, and he was whisked back into the tube.

He laid unresponsive in Pain's arms, tears trickling down his face. He didn't understand, how could his very existance be wrong?

He didn't notice when they had gone below the first level, and went deeper into the earth. He didn't even notice when they got out of the tube.

He did notice when they entered a strange room, with only doors on either side. Everything was white and bright, and he blinked away the tears from his eyes as he tried to adjust to the light.

He couldn't see into any of the rooms, there were no windows, just white plastic looking doors, and buttons that blinked. There were screens next to each door, words constantly moving down it, like someone was writing a report.

Above all, though, it was quiet. The only thing Naruto could hear was Pain's feet thudding against the floor as he carried him down to the very end of the corridor.

The orange haired man shifted Naruto so he couldn't see what the man was doing. Then there was a whoosh. Pain lifted him up, and set him in the room, before the door closed, locking him in.

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you for reading!

So, about the pairings... the focus is on various sides of Gaara's and Naruto's relationship. Some of them will be friendshippy, others will be romantic, etc. I will say this though, in the main storyline, it will take a while before Gaara and Naruto will get into a romantic relationship (once you read the next chapter, you'll understand why). So, I hope those of you who enjoy shounen, but aren't fans of shounen ai will still read this, and continue even when it does have the romantic aspects. I promise, it won't be too blatant with the main storyline, but I can't promise anything of the other dimensions.

My main thoughts for creating this story was a shounen, shounen ai. Or a shounen, shoujo, that, instead of a heterosexual pairing, had a homosexual pairing, or some such. I just love the shounen, and young adult genres, and just adventure stories in general, and I wanted to try creating one, and get some practice in it, before I try making my own original story. I hope you'll stick around to see how the journey goes!


	2. A Call

**Title**: I'm With You

**Author**: LadySable (LiveJournal)/StoryBard(here)

**Pairings**: GaaNaruGaa

**Rating**: T

**WARNING**: This will have heterosexuality and homosexuality. If either offend you, this is not the story for you.

**Disclaimer**: The characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not make money from this fan made work.

**Summary**: Gaara was kidnapped when he was five. Naruto when he was nine. Eight years later, Naruto is saved, and has to adventure out to different dimensions to find Gaara, and stop Madara's plan to throw the universe into chaos.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: A Call<strong>

A ragged nail dug into pale skin until a drop of blood coated it. He admired the vibrant color, before dragging the blood tipped nail onto the wall. He leaned back, and stared at the wall with dull eyes. There were 2,940 other lines marking the days that passed. It excluded the first month he had been imprisoned, excluded the days he would curl up in a ball and beg for death, excluded the days where he would scream, never-ending, because he couldn't stand the quiet.

He looked over at the wall as a shelf slid out of a hole that hadn't been there a second before. He waited, and watched as it slid back into the wall, so fast that, if he had blinked, he wouldn't have seen it disappear. He sighed, and trudged over to the item that fell off when the shelf whisked back into the wall.

It was a bandage. He looked at it with an apathetic gaze, and then turned away from it, and sat back down on the floor.

The room cared more about his existence than he did.

He leaned up against the wall, and popped out the screen from his Life System. He checked the time, and sighed. In another 11,232 seconds, the room would give him his dinner, and then it would be 19,728 seconds after that, that it would pop out a shelf with a mattress nailed to it.

It didn't give him pillows or blankets anymore.

He received his meal at the same second he always got it. He ate what would sustain him, and then gazed up at the ceiling.

He remembered when he was little, and asked why people gazed at clouds when they never seemed to change. He'd been a fool then. Better to have clouds that changed a little, than a ceiling that never changed. Not even a crack had formed in the ceiling during his 2,941 days in the cell.

He shouldn't have even been born.

If all his life was going to be spent in a cage, only to rot in it, he'd rather not have existed at all. There was an injustice in his imprisonment, but he could never figure out what it was. No one had died by his ill gotten virus, even if everyone around him was careless, he wasn't. He'd been so careful, and, yet, it hadn't been enough.

He was dozing when he woke to sirens blaring in his ears.

He clutched his hands to his ears, and opened his eyes. It was the first time he'd ever heard the noise.

There was a woman gazing down at him.

There was a woman in his cell.

He gasped as she reached down to touch his head. He moved to dodge the hand, but she grabbed him by his hair, and he watched as amber eyes swept over him.

"Naruto?"

He blinked at her, confused, but she was gone, dodging a spinning blade.

The room was attacking her.

He frowned, confused. Wasn't she an angel? Hadn't he already rotted to death, and she was sending him to heaven? He frowned even harder, he didn't deserve heaven, but she seemed too gentle to have come from hell.

He was corrected of that statement when she broke one of the spinning blades in half from a simple punch.

She turned to him, her eyes narrowed. She reached out a hand, and said, "Come on, we're leaving."

When he didn't reach up to grab her hand, she sighed, and stormed over to him, grabbing his hand.

All he could do was gasp, and then they were gone, and darkness overtook his eyes.

* * *

><p>He hissed as the puppet's poisoned needle pierced his skin, then gave a ferocious grin to the suddenly quiet puppet. It was his last weapon, and a foolish move. He grabbed the cord that the needle was attached, and dragged the man-turned-puppet towards him.<p>

He tugged the cord, hard enough that the puppet flew to him, landing on the fist that he had created, breaking the puppets face. He frowned as he noticed that the puppet was still moving, and scanned it, looking for its weak point. There was a circular badge that had red writing on it, and he took that as the life force of the puppet, keeping the man alive.

He raised his fist to punch it, and almost made contact, but was stopped when someone grabbed his arm. He glared over at the long haired blond next to him.

"Stop," Deidara growled. Then he turned and looked down at Sasori, "You know better than to fight 'im! What the hell did you think you were doing?"

He relaxed, and slipped his arm out of Deidara's grasp, and said, "We were just having a friendly spar, weren't we Uncle?"

"As friendly as two lions fighting over a scrap of meat," Deidara muttered as he helped Sasori up.

"Deidara, why did you stop the fight?" Sasori snarled.

"Fine, if you don't want me to save your life, I won't stop the spar next time, and you can die," he said, exasperated. "Ah, Midnight, don't go too far, Pein's back."

He turned and gave them an apathetic look they couldn't see because of the sheer black cloth covering his eyes, and the swaths of black cloth that covered the rest of his body, "Didn't he go to pick up the last virus?"

"Yeah," he hedged, "But it's always Naruto that's the hardest to get. He has lots of friends, and doesn't give up that easily."

"Pein said that he had the last virus locked in complete isolation, on top of that, his hometown was manufactured to break his spirit. How could he have gotten away? And don't say friends, because he didn't have any," Midnight said.

"Don't ask me, I wasn't there. I'm sure Pein'll explain it when he gets here," Deidara said with a shrug.

He turned and left the sparring room.

Not only was Naruto ruining Pein's plans, he was ruining _his_ plans. He planned on killing Naruto when he got here, putting Pein's and Madara's plans to a halt, and then he would steal one of their rings, and escape to another dimension, destroying Akatsuki little by little as they tried to get their plans back on track.

He knew that they were just keeping him there so that they could kill him when Naruto got there. Naruto would have even been grateful to be put out of his misery, if he hadn't gone crazy after all this time.

What he couldn't figure out was why they trained him, upgraded him, if all they were going to do was kill him once they got what they wanted.

* * *

><p>He was trapped, boiling, nowhere to run, walls all around him, closing in. He gasped awake, sweat pouring down his forehead as he tried to move, but his arms were pinned next to him, his legs tied up.<p>

He looked down, and relaxed. He was cocooned in blankets. He frowned as he broke out of the blankets, and lifted the blankets up, looking at them. Then he looked around, eyeing the wooden floor, and ceiling.

He dropped the blankets.

Trapped. He was still trapped, but this time, it was wood. He could break wood, he mused, and then he froze as he heard something clatter. He looked over to see a woman with pink hair, wearing strange clothes, and carrying a tray with a bowl on it, coming into the room.

She turned away from the door, and smiled at him, "Good! You're awake! I brought you some food to eat! Ramen!"

He blinked at her, "Ramen?"

She frowned at him, "Yes, ramen. Haven't you ever had some?" Then she paused, "Oh, right, you might not have had it. You're from the techno dimension that's all sleek buildings, white, and clean. They probably don't have ramen there."

She set the ramen next to the mattress that was on the floor to his surprise. He looked into the bowl, looking at the broth of noodles, he shook his head, "No, I haven't had anything like this."

She threw some sticks at him, and said, "Dig in, then! I can't imagine you not obsessing over ramen!"

Naruto frowned, and then looked at the sticks and the bowl. "Do I drink it from the bowl? What are these things?" He tapped the sticks together, "Are they some sort of eating device? How do I get them to work?"

The pink haired woman groaned, and said, "Of course you don't know how to use chopsticks. That world doesn't have them anymore. Give me a second, and I'll bring you a fork. They did use forks there, right?"

He nodded.

"Okay, back in a second."

He watched as she ... slid? ... the door open, and disappeared. Then the door slid closed. He eyed it, and hid his relief that it wasn't perfect. If he had to, he could stick his fingers in the gap and get it to open, if it wasn't locked.

He looked down at the ramen. This wasn't the same woman who had saved him. There was another woman, a blond one. What happened to her?

The door slid open again, and the pink haired woman slipped through it, holding up a fork. She smiled as she handed it to him. "There, you should be able to eat it now." She paused, and then said, "Oh, um, I guess you might not know me, but I'm Sakura."

He stopped swirling the noodle onto his fork, "Sakura? I don't remember a person by that name. Everyone in my town was just a blur."

Sakura blinked, "Oh, that's right, you were supposed to move away from your hometown when you were ten."

"That's incorrect, Sakura."

He looked up to see the light blond haired woman who saved him. Her amber eyes were gentle as she looked at him, and then she turned to Sakura, "You need to reread _The History of the Worlds_ again. He didn't move away, he ran away when he was ten, but Pein stopped that, didn't he?"

She gave him a hard look, and he looked back, unsure of what to do.

Then Sakura said, "Master Tsunade, _The History_ is so dull, though. If it wrote only the major time altering things, it wouldn't be so bad, but it writes everything. From the first hokage using a tree as his bathroom, to what the great pirate, known as Gaza, ate in the morning of the tenth of September, to the number of strokes the winner of the Dyre Peindre Award did on their award winning painting. There were so many strokes, and it wrote them out in excruciating detail. Did it really need to tell me all of that?"

Tsunade chuckled, "Yes, yes it did. What if he did one less stroke in reality, and he lost? You would have to go and make sure he did the exact amount of strokes the next time."

"Yeah, but Naruto is so stubborn about his paintings."

"Naruto?" he asked.

Sakura and Tsunade turned to him and frowned, and Tsunade said, "Yes, Naruto. Naruto from Skiledge is very strict about his paintings, well, he was when I last visited there."

"Why does that name seem familiar?" he asked aloud.

"That's because it's your name, Naruto," Sakura said, her brow furrowing. "What happened to you?"

"How long were you in that cell?" Tsunade asked at the same time.

"Oh," Naruto said, as the name clicked. "That's why it seemed familiar. I was in the ... containment room for 2,941 days, but that numbers a little off."

"Wait a minute," Sakura said, pausing to do the math, and then said, "You were in a ... prison for 8 years? Why?"

"I wasn't supposed to exist," Naruto said with a shrug. "I wanted to die, but the room wouldn't let me, and I couldn't understand why I was kept alive if I wasn't supposed to exist."

"Why weren't you suppo-"

"Sakura, would you take Naruto's ramen? I don't think he's going to want it just yet, and it's getting cold. Maybe bring us a new one in ten to fifteen minutes?"

Sakura frowned, but said, "Fine."

Tsunade waited until the screen shut, before saying anything.

"How does the wall unroll like that? Do you guys have a code or something?" Naruto asked, eyeing the wall.

Tsunade shook her head, "It's a sliding door, you open it using your bare hands." She knelt down beside Naruto's mattress.

"Naruto," Tsunade said. "Who told you that you weren't supposed to exist?"

"God did," Naruto said, his gaze blank.

"God?"

"Um, I-I think he had another name. Um, Pein?" His uncertainty was frustrating him.

Tsunade's eyes widened, and she said, "Naruto, that's not God! Pein is as human as we are, he breathes air, and he dies, too."

"He said I existed, therefore I was trapped in the cell. In retribution for being able to kill with just a touch, I was supposed to die."

"Naruto!" Tsunade yelled, and then she covered her face with a hand, and took a deep breath. Then she locked her amber eyes on his, "Naruto, it's not your fault that you can kill with just a touch. Did you ever want to kill?"

"No, I never wanted to kill people."

"Then you're fine. Everyone has the ability to kill. It was just easier for you to kill in your world, than it would be anywhere else," Tsunade showed Naruto her hands. "See these two hands?" Naruto nodded. "I can use them to kill just as easily as you could with your hands. It's what you do with them that counts."

Tsunade paused, a strange look on her face, and asked, "You can kill with just a touch? That's because of the virus, right? _The History_ said something about computer viruses being contained in people, but that it was unstable, and those people could kill just by touching others."

Naruto nodded.

Then he was enveloped in warmth. He froze as he realized that Tsunade's arms were wrapped around him. "Tsu...na...de...?" he breathed. Then, with timid hands, he wrapped his own around her. He rested his head on her shoulder, and breathed in her scent, a mixture of herbs that he couldn't name.

"It's okay for you to live," Tsunade whispered.

He tightened his grip around her, and choked as his chest tightened. He felt something drip down his face, and held on tighter. He didn't want to lose the feeling of being warmed by another person for the first time in his memory. He wasn't sure how long they remained in that position, only that when they separated, Tsunade had water tracks running down her face, too.

He reached out to touch her cheek, but pulled back until she grabbed his hand and forced it to touch her cheeks. "Tears," she said. "They normally happen when someone is overcome by emotion, generally sadness or happiness," she gave him a gentle smile, her face softening.

Naruto brought his hand to his face, and used his hand to wipe away the tears. "I-I'm sorry," he mumbled. "We're not supposed to cry."

"'We'?"

"It wasn't expressly forbidden, it was just that no one ever did, so I thought it was wrong, the times when water, um, tears, ran down my face."

Tsunade shook her head, "It's never wrong to cry, especially when you haven't cried in years. It's only wrong to cry and complain, and then do nothing about it."

Naruto nodded, and looked down at his moist hand, "What can I do about this?" He asked, showing Tsunade his tear soaked hand.

She grabbed his hand, and held it for a moment, then said, "Nothing, right now. I want you to rest for a while. Then I'll help you out with your problem."

The blond nodded.

The screen door rolled back with a loud smack, and Sakura entering the room, smiling, "I brought the ramen!"

Tsunade clapped her hands, and had a wicked smile on her face, "You're going to love this, Naruto!"

* * *

><p>Midnight was standing in Pein's inner sanctum, waiting for Deidara and Sasori to catch up to him. It reminded him of a place that he'd seen when he was twelve. Charlie had taken him there, and told him that it was the perfect hiding place.<p>

When he was captured, he looked up what the building was, and got a lot of information of the churches in the present, the ones that worshiped Pein, and the past, the ones that worshiped an all mighty being called God. Many of the descriptions of the past churches were of high ceilings, and stained glass windows, but he was sure that none of them had a throne-like chair in front of them.

Pein had a God complex.

Yet, it never went to his head, and he never let his guard down, which made assassination attempts on him null and void. He hadn't even bothered to try, since Pein also had the power to back up his God complex.

Pein was standing off to the side. It was odd for a person with a God complex, given that he was in the shadows, almost hiding. Konan was standing near the throne, watching Pein look out the window.

"Pein," Deidara yelled as he came through the door, Sasori's arm wrapped around his shoulder. "You need to do something about Midnight! He nearly killed Master Sasori, and if I hadn't stopped him, he would have."

"Kakuzu has killed many of his old partners. If Sasori cannot protect himself from Midnight, then he's not strong enough to stay in Akatsuki," Konan said.

"Yeah, but Kakuzu wasn't deliberately killing his companions. Midnight is," Deidara said, giving the cloth covered man a narrow glare.

"Enough, Deidara, we have more important things to worry about," Konan said, dismissing Deidara's argument with a sharp turn of her head to Pein.

"The last virus is gone," Pein said.

"How?" Sasori asked.

"Tsunade. She must have gotten a lock of Naruto's hair from somewhere else, and focused on finding him in this world."

"How did she even know he was captured? Didn't you go through a lot of trouble to make sure that nothing seemed off?" Deidara asked.

"Yes, but she has _The History_. She knows how each world is supposed to play out."

"She could have just been checking up on Naruto in each dimension," Midnight said. "What do you want us to do about this problem?"

"We don't know what Tsunade's next move is. She could have that Naruto travel the dimensions for her, or she could keep him with her. Until we know what she's going to do, we wait."

Deidara and Sasori nodded, and left to take care of Sasori's wounds.

Midnight turned to leave, but was stopped by Pein. "You've been wanting to know why we train you, even though we also know that you would use those skills against us, haven't you?"

He turned, and glared at Pein. "Yes, are you going to tell me?"

"It was just in case something like this happened. Only a few Akatsuki members are ever here, most of them have worlds they are in charge of. In fact, as soon as Sasori is fixed up, he's going off to another dimension, as is Deidara. If Tsunade decided to make one of the Naruto's a Jumper, we needed someone who would be happy to crush him and bring him back to us. Someone who is able to move around freely without their own world to take care of.

"If Naruto becomes a Jumper, and I highly expect him to be, we need you to go after him and bring him back."

He narrowed his eyes at Pein, "Are you so sure that I'll bring him back? What if I kill him, instead?"

Pein looked at him, and said, "We expected you to want to kill him, and that would set us back, so we took matters into our own hands. If you kill Naruto, then don't expect your family to survive."

"What?"

"As Naruto was gone, we took the time to gather up your family members from this world. You know, if you killed this Naruto before his time, then every Naruto in every world would die at the same moment. If he hasn't been born yet, he wouldn't exist in that world. I know you haven't seen your family in over fifteen years, so their deaths might not concern you, but think about all the other you's that care about them. Would you be willing to give yourself that kind of heartache? Your hands are already stained with blood, do you want to add more to them?"

Midnight growled, "Fine. I understand. You want me to capture Naruto and bring him back. What's in it for me?"

"Your family will be free. Is that not enough?"

He snorted, "Maybe for a different me, but not this one. I don't want to be stopped."

"I'll let you free, no more ties to us, if you bring me Naruto."

"I never had ties to you. I want one of the Jumping rings, one that I get to keep, not one that will break after two jumps like you usually give me. You have time to make me one, it's not like I'm going anywhere. We have to wait on Tsunade," he said, his voice filled with contempt.

"Is that all? A Jump ring, and your family free?"

"That'll be enough, I'm not greedy."

"Fine, then we'll be business partners until you finish your task," Pein said, dismissing him.

He turned and left, but before he exited Pein's inner sanctum, Pein stopped him.

"Oh, and don't think about betraying us, or joining up with Naruto. You will not like the consequences, Gaara."

"Why would I join up with Naruto? He's the reason I'm here, right?" He asked sarcastically, before leaving.

* * *

><p>Tsunade allowed him to rest for five days. During that time, he spent every waking moment outside, in the trees, in the sunshine, in the open air, and when he went to sleep, he always had the doors slid open. Each morning, Sakura would cluck her tongue, and tell him that he would get a cold if he kept the doors open.<p>

He didn't care. A cold was better than the cramped feeling he got when he was in a windowless room, the suffocating fear that he was in the cell again. He tried, he really had, the first night, to sleep with the door closed, but then he started choking on the fear that he would never get out, never escape, and the walls closed in on him, and he was trapped. He slept outside that night.

He entered into her office with hesitation.

"Naruto," she said with a smile, and he smiled back, a warmth filling him, something that he recognized as happiness. It was a lot better, nicer, than the cold despair that had been his life back in the cell.

He sat in an office chair across from her, the one filled with sunlight, and let it warm him on the outside, while Tsunade's smile warmed him up on the inside. He curled up in the chair, and let his head rest on his knee, and waited for her to speak.

Tsunade frowned at him, and then said, "I'm not used to you being this quiet, I was waiting for you to call me 'Granny,' and insult me, or yell how you were going to take my position."

Naruto blinked, "Am I really that rude?"

She laughed, "I've gotten so used to it just being a part of you, that I forgot how it would seem to other people. No, you were only like that as a kid, although, you still slip up sometimes. When you were older, as more people began to notice you, you didn't need to call attention to yourself, and stopped acting up."

Naruto smiled, "I remember, when I was nine, I pulled pranks, trying to get attention. I'd forgotten."

Tsunade's smile faded, and she nodded, "Right, this brings me to what I need you to do.

"When you were five, you were supposed to meet another boy similar to you, and you two would become great leaders of that world, bringing it to its golden age, at least, that's what you two seem to always do in other dimensions when you meet. However, Pein interrupted your world's timeline by kidnapping him.

"You have to find that boy, or the universe will be pushed into chaos."

Naruto nodded.

"However, because Pein can go to different dimensions, I don't know where Pein is keeping him. He could be back in your dimension, or he could be in a completely different dimension.

"At the same time, though, Akatsuki is determined to screw up the timeline of every dimension they happen across, and I need you to help me set the timelines aright. I can't do it, I'm needed here, just in case something goes completely wrong. I'm the only one who can set the world aright, but it's dangerous, and I wouldn't be able to survive, and it would only stop Chaos, it would do nothing for the dimensions and worlds that were destroyed because of Akatsuki, and many lives would be lost.

"Sakura will be able to go with you to the first dimension, but I need her here. I've gotten old, and every time I move to another dimension, it wears me down."

"How are you even able to go to different dimensions?" Naruto asked, frowning.

"I'm the granddaughter of the first man to travel dimensions. He created a necklace to help him, but as he became used to skipping through the dimensions, he realized he didn't need it any more. He gave it to someone he considered a friend, only to be backstabbed. He's the one who's the head of Akatsuki, now. Fortunately, my ancestor was able to take the necklace back, but it was too late, for the man, Madara, had already learned how to go from dimension to dimension, and he spent his time learning how to create something similar to the necklace, and created the group known as Akatsuki by gathering men, and women, from different worlds to join him."

Tsunade opened her hand, and showed him a necklace made out of leather, with a green pendant hanging between two round orbs. "This is my ancestor's necklace. I'm giving it to you, so don't lose it. You'll need it to travel dimensions for at least a year. It takes that long to get used to it. Also, you never know what dimension you're going to land in the first time you start jumping. It's only after you've jumped to a certain dimension that you can willingly jump there again. Another thing, don't jump more than once a week, especially at first. If you're too tired and try to jump, you could end up lost in space, and I won't be able to save you."

Naruto took the necklace with gentle fingers, "It seems dangerous, Jumping."

Tsunade nodded, "However, as you can see, many people can do it, you just need to be careful. You'll do this for me?" she asked softly, as if he would refuse.

He looked up, and gave her a short nod, before putting on the necklace. He looked around, and frowned.

She laughed, "It doesn't work like that, but I don't want you to go just yet, anyway. They're a few things I need to give you so you're not going to another world defenseless. Also, take this," she handed over a white slip of paper, but when he touched it, it felt strange, it held a certain power, but it was comforting, too. "This is made out of hair and nails of the man you're supposed to find. Whenever you see his version in the other dimensions, you need to touch this against him, okay?"

At that moment, Sakura came through the door, carrying something that looked familiar to him.

"Jiraiya just dropped these off, but he had to go, he says that because of your stunt, that dimension is on lockdown, and Pein's keeping an eye on all of the citizens."

Tsunade just nodded, her smile a little smug, until her eyes drifted to him. Then she sobered up, and said, "You can tell him that it was worth it."

"Tsunade, you just said that I shouldn't jump twice in a week, and yet you, and this Jiraiya, have jumped twice within a day."

"We've been doing this for over thirty years, Naruto. There comes a point when you won't have to take so long a break between jumping, but you've only gone on one jump so far. Besides, you shouldn't jump twice within a day, unless it's an emergency, which happened to be mine and Jiraiya's cases. If you jumped twice in a day, as you are now, I wouldn't expect you to be alive when you finally made it to a dimension, after who knows how long you've been drifting out in space."

Naruto nodded, his face thoughtful, and he looked at what Sakura was still holding.

Sakura noticed him looking at her hands, and smiled, "These are to upgrade your Life System, so you'll be able to hide, and defend yourself when you get to a different dimension."

His eyes widened, "Upgrade? I get an upgrade? I've never gotten an upgrade before."

"Well, now you're getting one," she said. She lifted up one of the upgrade drives, and said, "This one will allow you to create a perfect hologram around yourself. According to Jiraiya, it's like you become the hologram, so that even if the hologram that you have surrounding yourself is shorter than you are, you are that short." Naruto gave her a puzzled look, and she sighed, "Okay, you're roughly five feet five, right? So, if you're trying to disguise yourself as a five foot girl, even if you're five feet five, you will feel as if you were five feet, and if someone attacks you, they are attacking that five feet of you. If, disguised as the girl, they swing over your head, they won't hit anything, though, which is why it's considered the perfect hologram."

"Oh, so I'm basically transformed into a fight foot tall girl. That hologram word just confuses it, huh?" he smiled as Sakura groaned. Tsunade gave him a thumbs up.

"Fine, you win, it magically transforms you into whatever you want to look like. Just be careful, though. Your Life System is different from every other model out there, so we don't know what things will break the illusion the hologram creates."

Naruto nodded.

She lifted the other drive, and said, "This one will give you a force field that has a three feet radius from you. It domes above your head, so make sure that you and whatever you might be protecting is within that radius, and is shorter than whatever you've transformed into is. You could be as tall as a house, and it'll take in that height, but it won't ever expand more than three feet from you."

"What does the force field protect against? Just attacks, or can it stop people from capturing me when I put it up? How long will the force field stay up?"

"As long as you're in the force field, you'll be protected from anything outside of it, even people," Sakura said, her voice somber, and her eyes sad. "The force field will stay up as long as you're conscious of it, but it does drain you if you keep it up for long amounts of time, and, depending on the strength of the attack, you'll be drained even faster."

He gave the drives a thoughtful look over, and then said, "How do I use them?"

"You'll have to loosen the top of your kimono, we need to see your Life System," Tsunade instructed.

He complied, and Sakura walked over to him, and pointed at a square hole in the Life System, "You're lucky, some people your age still hadn't gotten these inserted into their Life Systems, and their parents had to take them to the hospital to get it fixed in, although, you were born later in the year, and Minato was your father," she mused as she stuck the hologram drive into the slot.

"I have a father?"

Sakura gave him a look.

"I mean, I know I have to have a father, I just thought no one knew him, or that he left my mother. I didn't know he was known to be my father."

"Your father was Minato, and, no, he didn't leave your mother. They died protecting the world from the last virus during the Virus Wars."

"My parents were," he paused, trying to think of the word, "heroes?"

"Yes, they are held in high regard amongst the science community. Many people were disappointed when it seemed that you had disappeared. They knew they couldn't touch you, but they wanted to see Minato's last contribution to the world, and that's built into you."

"Oh," he said, and then he closed his eyes, as a soft electrical current passed through his body. It didn't hurt, it just left him tingling, and a feeling of potential filled him. He laughed, "Now I understand why there are upgrade junkies, if this is the feeling you get every time you upgrade your system."

"Don't get too comfortable with it, you're only getting two, and who knows when you'll get to go to your world again, so this is all you get."

He nodded, and then she inserted the force field drive. The same electric current passed through him again, although this time, he felt as though there was something warm around him.

She removed the drive, and said, "Okay, now you can practice using them. Also, you can have your brain memorize three different forms, and the hologram drive will change you into that form whenever you focus on that name, so don't name the forms something you'd think of during your daily activities. To remove the hologram, just think dispel. Create one of the forms that'll be memorized so that you'll have one to automatically use."

"Okay," he said. He flipped out the screen, and began to browse the different forms that were already created for him. He found nothing that he liked, so he started to create his own person. Tsunade and Sakura looked at each other, and gave each other a grim nod when they noticed Naruto eyeing them.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Naruto gave a triumphant smile, and said, "Nana." There was no poof, no fog, no indication of what had happened. One minute Naruto was grinning at them, the next, a blond woman with long pigtails, and wearing a blue, skintight dress, its hem reaching mid-thigh, was blinking at them with a coy shyness.

"See!" Sakura hissed, pointing at 'Nana.' "He _is_ a pervert."

Nana sniffled, and looked up at Sakura, tears in her eyes. "D-Do you really believe that Sakura?" she asked, mimicking what she'd read in books.

Sakura tried not to give in to the puppy dog eyes, and pout, but she caved, "N-No."

Then Nana smiled, and was suddenly Naruto again, only to wince in pain when Sakura chopped him on the head. "What was that for?"

"Because you are a pervert, and I lied," Sakura said with a huff.

"It's a protection thing," Naruto said. "If I look innocent, and defenseless, I won't be harmed, and I'll be able to go places that I wouldn't be able to as a man."

"Like women's baths," Sakura said with narrow eyes.

"No," Naruto said. "I'd be able to get into places that are usually restricted, which, if we're dealing with people that I think we are, then I'm going to need to be able to look like I can't harm a fly to get into them."

"Oh," Sakura said, eyeing Naruto. Then she turned to Tsunade, "Why is he so different? I mean, sometimes he acts like most of the Naruto's, but then, like now, he sounds smart."

Tsunade laughed, "Sakura, you haven't been paying much attention, have you? Most of the time, Naruto is smart, he just acts dumb because it gets him attention, and if you really think about it, his pasts in any world have not been too happy, so that would make what you would consider 'smart' hard for him because he wouldn't have a good education. This Naruto, however, has the benefit of a good education, and the fact that he grew up in a place where, whatever he did, no one cared about. Then he was kidnapped." She paused, and then asked, "When were you kidnapped? I know it was eight years ago, but I don't know how old you are right now."

Naruto swallowed, and said, "I-I was nine. I didn't know that he was going to take me away, and that I wouldn't get to see the sun for more than eight years. I shouldn't have listened to him, I should have ran away as soon as I saw him."

Tsunade stood up, and walked around the desk to place a hand on Naruto's shoulder, and said, "You were only nine, how were you supposed to know? Besides, I doubt running would have saved you from this particular person."

He nodded, but didn't look at her.

She sighed, and then said to Sakura, "You know how lucky all the other Naruto's are?" Sakura nodded, "Well, there has to be some balance, so while some have abnormally good luck, some have average luck. Well, I think this Naruto got most of the bad luck, and that really affects how people think about things. He couldn't rely on luck to get out of situations that any other Naruto could get out of.

"However," Tsunade said, eyeing Naruto's despondent look. "There is one thing that this Naruto can do, that we need him to do." She crouched down, and said, "Naruto, I need you to save the other dimensions for me, will you do that for me?"

"You just said that I have most of the bad luck, how will that help?" Naruto said, it was almost a petulant tone, but the hint of despair behind it, made it more of a cry for help.

Tsunade gave him a soft smile, tilting her head slightly, "Bad luck isn't all that you have in you, Naruto. Pein disrupted your growth, and you have more in you than you can imagine, and that's what we need. We need your hidden potential."

"I don't think I have it," Naruto mumbled.

"You do, you just need to find it, and find Gaara."

"Gaara?"

Tsunade blinked, "Didn't I tell you? The name of the boy you're looking for is Gaara. Well, I say 'boy,' but he's your age. Actually, he's roughly ten months older than you."

"Why didn't you rescue him, instead? I'm sure he could have done a better job."

She smacked him, the sound reverberated through the room, "Have you not been listening? We don't know _where_ he's at! We need you to find him! You're the only one who can do this!"

Naruto stared at her, blue eyes wide, and his hand came up to his face, shaking, and touched the now scarlet cheek. He bit his lip, and said, "O-Okay, I'll go. I still think I'm the wrong person, though."

She sighed, and said, "Maybe you'll figure out that you're not. Anyway, so you have Nana, now. When you want to use the force field manually, just will it to come. You may need to practice that, but, for now, it's automatic when an oncoming force is entering your vicinity at a dangerous speed or force."

"What's considered dangerous?" Naruto asked, his brow twisted in a puzzled expression.

"I asked Jiraiya the same question, and he said that it's not too sensitive, but it does know exactly when to come up," Sakura said.

"That's not very helpful," he frowned.

"No, it's not, but it's what you've got. Now, be careful in your disguise. Just because you look like a girl, they'll know something's off if you don't act like a girl. Sakura will be coming with you to your first dimension. It's too dangerous to just drop you in there with no help, but she won't be coming with you on all your travels, so learn everything you can from her."

Naruto stood up, and asked, "Do I need to take anything with me?"

Tsunade paused, and said, "Do you have any personal items that are special to you, but have no other purpose?" He shook his head, "Then no. It's not good to send items from one dimension to another. That's another thing that messes up the Timelines. You have to start over fresh in each dimension, but, hopefully, you find either Sakura or me, and we can provide you the things you need."

She looked at him with care, and then her arms were wrapped around him. He sighed, and relaxed into the hug, with a feeling of contentment. She'd hugged him at least once a day, and he could find no reason to reject them. They eased the longing for human contact that beat beneath his skin.

"Now, you must go," she said, backing away from him. "Time is a tricky thing, especially between dimensions. You need to complete your missions as quickly as possible, if you spend too much time in any one dimension, you may find that it's too late, and Madara will have the universe in chaos."

He nodded, and looked at Sakura, his head tilted in a questioning glance. She nodded, and walked over to him, grasping his hand. He looked down at his hand in puzzlement, and Sakura said, "We have to be touching, or we'll go off to different dimensions. I'm going to initiate this first jump, okay? Now, watch, you'll hold onto the necklace like this. After that, you need to squeeze it, gently. That triggers the Jump, and then we'll be off." She smiled at him, and then followed her own directions. Naruto watched as Tsunade and the walls around her house disappeared.

He blinked, and the next moment, he was surrounded by tall, gray buildings that were exploding.

* * *

><p>Take me somewhere new<p>

I don't know who you are

But I'm, I'm with you

I'm with you

I'm looking for a place

I'm searching for a face

Is anybody here I know?

'Cause nothing's going right

And everything's a mess

And no one likes to be alone

I'm With You ~ Avril Lavigne

* * *

><p>AN:

To tell the truth... this story wasn't inspired by Avril Lavigne. It was inspired by Hands on Me by Vanessa Carlton, but this section seemed to resonate better with I'm With You, and the whole premise of the story, as well. Many of the other worlds are inspired by different songs, so I'll probably post the lyrics that inspired me at the end of each dimension.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the story so far! This story... will be long. Just warning you. If you have any questions, please, feel free to ask. There's going to be a lot going on, and questions help me focus on details that may be a bit murky, or confusing, and let me know what I need to fix, and ... I kind of like answering questions. =) Ah, but I won't give away anything that I consider spoilery.

Whenever Naruto uses a female hologram, I will use female pronouns for him, and refer to him by the name he's disguising himself as. This is to keep from confusing you by saying Naruto did this, but the other Naruto did that (what other Naruto? The one here, or the Tech!Naruto (T!Naruto is my nickname for the main Naruto. Same with this Gaara, he's T!Gaara, because they're from the same dimension. I'll put this information, and information on each dimension in my profile, too, but I won't put the dimension information up, until T!Naruto goes there. It wouldn't be fun if you knew what the next dimension will be like. =) )

Also, my beta deserves a huge thank you. She's doing both this, and Iris, and she's been keeping up with my crazy mad schedule, and getting the chapters back within a week, and she answers all of my weird questions. She's awesome, and deserves some credit, 'cause I couldn't do all of this without her.

On another note, unless I deliberately say someone is an OC, assume everyone is from the Naruto-verse, I may give them a nickname, but that does not mean they're not the same person. On that note, Charlie is an OC, and he does impact this story in a somewhat major way, but he is post-humous, and you will only be seeing him in flashbacks. Most OCs will be minor (like a waitress), and only there for a chapter. None of them will overtake the story.

P.S. Curse you Kishi! Now I don't even know who my main villain is. ;_;


	3. Kitsukaa City

**Title**: I'm With You

Author: LadySable (LiveJournal)/StoryBard(here)

**Pairings**: GaaNaruGaa

**Rating**: T

**WARNING**: This will have heterosexuality and homosexuality. If either offend you, this is not the story for you.

**Disclaimer**: The characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not make money from this fan made work.

**Summary**: Gaara was kidnapped when he was five. Naruto when he was nine. Eight years later, Naruto is saved, and has to adventure out to different dimensions to find Gaara, and stop Madara's plan to throw the universe into chaos.

**A/N**: I don't usually put an A/N before the chapter, but this is probably going to be the longest chapter...ever, so if you're in a rush, you might want to wait until you have some time to spare to read it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 2: Kitsukaa City<strong>

_"I can't stand to fly_

_I'm not that naive_

_Men weren't meant to ride_

_With clouds between their knees_

_I'm only a man in a silly red sheet_

_Digging for kryptonite on this one way street_

_Only a man in a funny red sheet_

_Looking for special things inside of me"_

_Superman ~ Five for Fighting_

* * *

><p>Naruto blinked, and realized he was exaggerating.<p>

The buildings weren't exploding. It was just that the there were two groups of three people each with powers that defied what his world considered 'normal,' and the buildings were damaged as the results of that much power attacking each other.

"Naruto, change to 'Nana!'" Sakura hissed at him, "And make her around thirteen, okay?"

He nodded, and fumbled with the screen before managing to get Nana's age lowered. Then he focused on the name. Sakura nudged his shoulder, and he blinked his eyes open. He touched the top of his head, and felt pigtails instead of his own natural spiky hair.

Nana looked over at Sakura. Sakura looked up at the two fighting groups, and said, "Nana, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ditch you now. I don't have a transformation ability, and it would look strange that a girl who looked exactly like Sakura, only a bit older was around. I might be able to get away as an older sister, or a cousin, but I don't want to risk it." She touched Nana's shoulder, and said, "Be careful, okay?"

Nana froze, and looked away, and said, "I will." Before she could ask Sakura to stay with her. She watched as Sakura left the vicinity with a quickness that was unreal.

She jumped when something flew past her to explode into the building behind her. She turned, eyes wide, to see the damage, only to have someone yell at her.

"Hey! Girl! Don't you know that it's dangerous?"

Nana blinked, and was shocked by the skin tight orange suit that Naruto was wearing. He was frowning at her, and the mask he wore did nothing to hide who he was, if that's what its purpose was for. He turned faster than she could see, and cursed. He lifted the goggles that were wrapped around his neck, and then he was gone, an orange blur was all that was left for her to see, he was moving so fast.

She looked up, following the blur of orange and saw a man wrapped in turbans. He looked like a desert wanderer, and it didn't surprise her to see that he was standing on a mound of sand, but she was surprised to see the man floating on the mound of sand in the air.

The turbaned man flew backwards, and Naruto was standing on his cloud of sand.

"Hahah!" Naruto yelled in triumph. "Take that Sand Man! I'm too fast for y-!"

The sand underneath him engulfed the blond.

"What the h-!" he cried out.

"The sand is a part of me, you were stupid to think that standing on it would protect you," Sand Man said, his voice muffled.

Then a black haired man, one of Naruto's partners, was standing on the sand, his eyes glowing. He easily pulled Naruto out of the floating quicksand.

"You idiot. We've fought this person how many times, and you still manage to get trapped in his quicksand," he said, exasperated, before jumping off the floating sand, and falling safely into a three-point landing.

"Well, it's not fair! How come he gets to fly and have great attacks? He just controls sand! Who knew sand could fly! All I can do is run faster than the human eye!" Naruto said, as he jumped off the sand cloud, onto the side of the building, and slid safely down it.

"Yeah, because running faster than the human eye is so much worse than only being able to see in slow motion," the black haired man said with sarcasm.

"Hey! Stop complaining, you bastard! How many times have you beaten me?" Naruto demanded as he ran over to the black haired man, and Sakura.

Sakura knocked both guys on the head, and said, "You idiots! You do realize that are enemy could have attacked us at any moment while you're bickering?"

"They didn't, though," Naruto pointed out. "You know, I kind of like fighting these guys. They aren't like the other villains who just seem to want to rule the world."

"Pink Crush, punch the concrete in front of us. Sand Man's sending a sand wave at us," the black haired man ordered.

She nodded, and adjusted her gloves, "Lightning, give me a boost."

Naruto threw her up in the air, and Sakura flipped herself to point down, and created a crater as long as the street, and far too deep for her to see the bottom of it.

"Nice, Sakura," Naruto whistled, and then yelped as she punched him.

"You idiot! No one is supposed to know our names!"

"But, we've said them so many times in front of these guys that I doubt once more will hurt anything," Naruto moaned, rubbing the spot where she hit him. "Besides, his is just dumb," Naruto jabbed his thumb over at the dark haired man. "What kind of hero has the name, The Avenger?"

"The kind that doesn't dress in an orange jumpsuit, and calls himself Orange Lightning," The Avenger drawled.

"Are you guys done jabbering or can we get back to our fight?" one of Sand Man's teammates asked, he was wearing a hood over his head and the ends pointed up.

"Hell, yeah, we're ready to fight!" Naruto yelled, then yelped, as sand tendrils grabbed his ankles, turning him upside down.

"Gyaa! What the hell?" he screamed as he was thrown about the tendrils. It looked like an octopus was juggling Naruto about.

The Avenger cursed, and Sakura asked, "What is it?"

"There's something in the sand. I think Puppet Man has a puppet hidden under it, and Sand Man is just playing with N-Orange Lightning before trapping him in the puppet, if it's the one I think it is."

The Avenger reached inside of the cloak enshrouding him, and pulled out a simple knife, and said, "I'm going after Orange Lightning, you see if you can destroy the puppet underneath the sand."

She nodded, and then they were gone, Sakura kept close to the sand tendrils, but never close enough to grab the Sand Man's attention, The Avenger, jumped through the sand tendrils, cutting through them. It didn't seem to do anything, but then the tendrils were falling apart, and Naruto was free.

A huge gust of air blew through at that moment, and Naruto was sent flying straight towards the building next to Nana.

Nana gasped as the wall didn't stop Naruto's momentum. Instead, he was sent flying through the building, causing a dust cloud to rise from where he'd crashed through it. She shook herself out of her stupor, and walked over to the hole in the wall, trying to see if Naruto was okay, or if she had already failed her mission.

"My back's going to be sore tomorrow," she heard Naruto moan from inside the building, before coming out. He turned and glared at her. "What are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Naruto! Watch out!" Sakura screamed.

They looked up, to see a wide part of the building falling on them, no time to get out of the way.

Nana gasped, eyes wide as the debris slid away from around them, the force field protecting her and Naruto.

Naruto stared in shock, and then said, "You should have told us that you were a hero! We could have had you help us!"

Nana gave him a noncommittal nod, but wasn't focused on him. She was watching outside of the force field, curious about the fact that there were sand tendrils above them. The force field had protected their sides, but nothing had hit the top of it, and she was sure that the sand was responsible for that.

"Are you from out of town? I've never seen you around here," Naruto asked, drawing in her attention.

She nodded.

The blond frowned, and said, "You don't talk much, do you?"

"I haven't had much reason to," Nana said, her eyes drawn towards the patch of light she could see behind Naruto. "I believe your friends are here to save us."

He scoffed, "Yeah, right. Sasuke's a bastard, and no friend of mine, but I'd be happy to be friends with Sakura." Nana watched as his eyes turned starry.

Then his friends broke through. Sakura took one look at Naruto, and then tried to hit him, but was stopped by the still present force field.

"Huh, is that you?" she asked, looking at Nana, and pointing at the force field.

Nana nodded, and fiddled with the necklace Tsunade gave her, drawing Sakura's attention to it.

Sakura's eyes widened, and she gave a slight nod, "Come on, Sasuke, we have to help them out." She moved the rubble away from the force field, creating a space for them to get out.

"Stop using my name, especially in front of someone who could be the enemy," Sasuke growled.

"She's not the enemy, she's here to help us."

"What do we need help with?" he asked, removing the last of the rubble.

Nana dropped the force field.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, she's here to help us," Sakura said, fists on her hips. "Now, let's get her to Kakashi so he can register her."

"What about Sand Man?" Naruto asked.

"He left after we started removing the rubble away from you. He looked kind of mad, too," Sakura said.

"What does he have to be mad about," Naruto grumbled. "He won this round."

He stormed off, leaving the others to follow him.

Nana frowned as she gave one last look behind her. She could have sworn she saw people digging themselves out of the rubble of the building.

* * *

><p>Pein called him to his inner sanctum. It was the second time in so many days that he'd been in the room that he had entered only once in more than ten years of being with Akatsuki.<p>

He was sure that it wasn't a good sign.

Pain looked up when Gaara entered.

"Good, you're here. I have your ring made. I need you to go to another dimension, and check out the status in that dimension. If an Akatsuki member is there, the ring will automatically place you next to that member, if not, then you will just enter the dimension, with no orders other than the one I gave you." Pein paused, and said, "Think of it as a mission of trust. You will trust that I have created a Jump ring that will safely place you in another dimension, and I will trust that you'll come back to us when I have found out that Naruto is a Jumper."

Gaara gave a sarcastic smirk, and said, "Either I stay in that dimension if there are no Akatsuki members, or the next time I Jump, I'll land next to an Akatsuki member who won't think twice about almost killing me, and dragging me back here."

"You can think of it that way, but I hope it won't come to that," Pein said.

"So, after this...'mission of trust,' how do you expect me to find Naruto?"

"The ring," Pein said, handing it over. "It's made out of the material that Naruto's Life System is made of. It's the only material of that mixture and type in any world, and it will automatically send you to the world that he's in."

"So why don't you just use this and ambush him? The main problem we had was that we didn't know what world he was in, with this, wouldn't you be able to capture him?"

"It only works after he's instigated his own Jump. Once he Jumps, it can latch onto the same...stream that's taking him to another world. If he doesn't Jump on his own, we'll never know where he's at, and would have to search individual dimensions to find him. I only had enough material to make one ring."

"How long do I have after he Jumps to initiate my own Jump after him?"

"Until his next Jump. However, the problem will come with syncing. You may Jump right before he does, and will end up in a different dimensions, so if you find him in a different dimension, make sure to keep an eye on him, and Jump right after he does."

Pein pointed at the ring, "He might have already Jumped, and you'll end up in the same dimension, so keep a close watch on what's going on. Make sure the other Gaara and Naruto don't meet in whatever world you're at. He changes you, for the worse."

He frowned at Pein, and then asked, "How do I Jump?"

"Push down on the flat part of the ring."

He pushed down on it, watching as Pein and the stained glass windows disappeared.

* * *

><p>"So, where are you from Nana?" Naruto asked, now wearing casual clothes over what he called his bright orange super-suit.<p>

"Far away."

"Well, where's Far Away?"

Sasuke scoffed, and said, "Idiot. She said she came from far away, not that far away is her city name. It's really suspicious that you won't tell us," he said, giving her a narrow look.

"I'm from a small town that's name isn't even on the map," she said.

"Well, what's the closest city to it?" Naruto asked, walking backwards to watch the group behind him. "I mean, there's here, Kitsukaa City, and then there's Chitaifield, and Misakiville, and Radama City. Are you from any of those?"

"Misakiville," Nana said, grabbing onto the unfamiliar name and place. "I live a few kilometers away from it."

"Kilometers?" Sasuke asked, giving her a strange look.

"Don't you mean miles?" Sakura asked.

"U-Uh, yeah," Nana said, looking down.

She jumped when a car passed by, unused to the strange vehicles.

Sakura was watching her, curiosity pouring out of her eyes. It was surprising none of the boys had picked up on it, but Naruto was oblivious, and Sasuke didn't care.

Naruto was about to ask another question, but frowned as he bumped into a man. He turned and looked up at a silver haired man.

Nana frowned, he was young, and shouldn't be graying.

"That's Kakashi," Sakura said. "I don't know if you met him in another world, but his hair's naturally like that."

"Who are you whispering my secrets to, Sakura?" Kakashi said, with what seemed like an amiable tone, but there was an undercurrent of steel, that made Nana shiver.

"Ah, um, this is Nana, Master Kakashi," Sakura said. "She's going to be a new hero."

"And what's her power? If it's something like just keeping things warm, she won't be of much use to us."

"She can create a force field, and she protected me from a falling building," Naruto said, a bit petulant.

Kakashi nodded, and said, "We might be able to use her, let's go and get her registered, and we'll see what Tsunade says."

"Tsunade?" Nana asked, trying not to seem too eager.

Kakashi turned and gave her a narrowed look, "Yes, Tsunade, she's the head of the Superhero's organization. Would you happen to know her?"

"Ah," Nana said, catching herself. She paused, and said, "I'm a, um, relative?"

"Hmm," Kakashi said, still looking at her with suspicion, but then shrugged it off.

They entered the building that looked like a run-down warehouse on the outside, it had fake boards covering the door, and one of the windows was broken. However, when they entered it, Nana was surprised by the lush interior, and the technology that she assumed was considered high tech in this world, but, compared to hers, there tech was something that she had read about as the technology of the Plastic Age.

Kakashi led them over to a desk that was ran by a man who had white strips of cloth wrapped around the middle of his face. The silver haired man tapped the top of the desk twice, and said, "I've got a new recruit."

"Name?"

"Nana."

"Age?"

Kakashi looked at her. "U-Um, thirteen," she stammered out.

"Right," he said, giving her a strange look.

"Power?" the bandaged man asked, interrupting them.

"Force field," Kakashi said.

The man raised a brow, "Really? That's interesting. Does she have a suit for rescue missions, or do you want to wait, Kakashi?"

He looked at her, then turned slowly to the bandaged man, "Let's wait a bit, but register her for night training."

"And add her to the school's registry."

They turned, and saw Tsunade coming through a side door.

"She's not in school?" Kakashi asked.

"No, she's new to the area," she said, coming up to Nana. She smiled at her, and lifted up the necklace to examine it.

"Do you know this girl, Tsunade?" Kakashi asked.

"She's a relative of the family," she said. "I should have warned you she'd be coming here, but I forgot." She gave him a grin that almost belied the fact that she was toying with him.

"Yeah right, you old hag! You're trying to mess with Kakashi!" Naruto yelled, pointing at her.

Tsunade opened her mouth to retort, but before she could say anything, Nana karate chopped Naruto on the head.

"What was that for?" Naruto yelped.

"Granny's _not_ an old hag! You need to treat her with more respect," she said, pointing down at Naruto. "Granny has done more for us than you can imagine!"

Naruto scowled, and yelled, "I don't have to listen to you!"

"Who saved your life, Naruto?" Sakura asked with a sly look.

"I thought she was a civilian! I didn't know she could save herself! If I had, I would have been outta there," he added with a petulant cross to his arms.

"Uh-huh, then why didn't you?"

Naruto frowned, "Because I was going to protect her."

Sakura gave him a flat look, "I was watching you. All you did was watch the debris fall on you like an idiot."

He shuffled his feet, and then yelled, "Why are you ragging on me? She was staring up at the debris like an idiot, too!"

"That's because, idiot, she had a force field; she knew she was safe. You didn't," Sasuke said, a tedious look on his face.

"Gah!" Naruto yelled, and then he attacked Sasuke.

Nana watched them, and then mumbled to Tsunade, "Am I normally this energetic?"

She chuckled, and said, "Well, you are twelve here."

"So, Nana, where are you staying tonight?" Sakura asked.

"Wouldn't it be better for me to stay with Tsunade? She is my relative after all...? And it wouldn't be right for a girl and a b-"

Tsunade slapped her hand over Nana's face, hard enough that there was a sting of pain.

She smiled at Nana before removing her hand, and said, "Maybe it would be better if you stayed with Sakura? It would be good if you made friends. Besides, you'll be going to school with her tonight, and tomorrow."

Nana frowned, and opened her mouth to argue, but Tsunade gave her a stern look, before turning her attention to Naruto and Sasuke's tussle.

"Kakashi, please restrain your students, and head to the night class. I'm adding Nana to your group, so take good care of her, and that's an order," she said, smiling.

"Yes, ma'am," he said, his single eye giving her a dull look. Then he turned towards Naruto and Sasuke, who were still wrestling, "Come on, boys. You can take this out in the practice courts."

"Yeah! And when I beat you, it'll be official, and you will have to cower before me, Sasuke!" Naruto said with an imperious look.

"I've beaten you over a hundred times, Naruto. I hope you're prepared for disappointment."

Kakashi grabbed Naruto's collar, preventing him from attacking Sasuke, and said, "Come on. Night school isn't open all night."

"What's night school?" Nana asked, frowning.

"You'll see, Nana!" Sakura beamed.

* * *

><p>Nana trudged behind Sakura into the girl's dorm room. Sakura had special clearances that allowed her off the school's property after school, but by ten, she had told Nana, she had to be back in her dorm room. Someone checked every once in a while to make sure she was in there.<p>

"You know," Sakura said. "I thought you'd be a lot stronger, but you're weaker than Naruto."

"I haven't had the chance to do much physical exercise," Nana mumbled. "May I?" she asked, pointing towards a beige mushroom chair.

"Yeah, go ahead. What's mine is yours," Sakura said. "I'm going to take a shower. No peeking," she added, as Nana curled up into the chair.

"Don't worry, I'm not interested in preteens," Nana said, her voice barely audible as she started to nod off.

Sakura frowned, but went into the bathroom, deciding to ignore the comment.

Nana was dozing when there was a knock. She awoke, groggy, and looked around. The tapping continued, and she headed towards the door, then frowned and turned around.

She walked over to the window, and opened it, looking down at the older Sakura, and asked, "What are you doing, Sakura? This is the third floor."

Sakura glared at him, and said, "I know, let me in, Naruto!"

Nana moved to the side, and Sakura jumped into the room.

"How were you able to climb up the wall? There's nothing for you to hold on to."

She wiggled her fingers, "Whenever you touch one of the you's in a dimension, they give you a little bit of their power. In one dimension there's this thing called chakra, and I got enough that I can walk up the walls. Sadly, that's about all I can do with it, because the me there didn't have much to begin with.

"So, what is little me doing right now?" Sakura asked as she walked around the room.

"She's in the shower, I was dozing on the chair until you knocked," Nana said, gesturing to the chair.

Sakura gave him a narrow look, and then said, "You can disperse your hologram. The me here knows, and I'm here to protect her, so don't think of doing anything funny."

Nana nodded, and thought, _disperse_.

Naruto frowned, and said, "Like what?"

She looked at him, and said, "If you don't know, then I'm not telling you."

At that moment, the twelve year old Sakura opened the door, dressed only in a towel. She squealed, and slammed the bathroom door shut when she saw the older Naruto.

Naruto gave the older Sakura a desperate look, and she laughed.

"It is so much fun teasing my little selves. They're so innocent," she said, between small chuckles.

He frowned at her, and then said, "Did Tsunade have anything to give me? I don't have a clue what I'm doing here."

"Oh, right," Sakura said. "You might want to take a seat, you look dead on your feet."

Naruto nodded, and curled up in the mushroom chair, while Sakura sat on the floor near him.

"Well, from what Tsunade has gathered, all the heroes are under some kind of grand illusion. She doesn't know how to break it, and she doesn't even know how it's controlling the heroes, all she knows is that the Akatsuki is the government, and the government is controlling the heroes. She can't get close to any of the villains to figure out if the heroes are just being toyed with, or if the villains really do need to be taken care of.

"Whenever she tells a hero, in or out of uniform, what's going on, they just think that she's creating a grand conspiracy, and don't believe her. Maybe you can figure out what's going on? Being as you're an outsider looking in?"

Naruto nodded his head drooping as he tried to stay awake.

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you," Sakura said. "Well, you did Jump today, and then you had night class, so I suppose it's fine.

"I heard it," he mumbled. "Just too tired to keep my head up."

"Sakura!" the little Sakura yelled. "Why didn't you tell me he was Naruto! And why is he so...big?" she asked with a timid look at the man.

"Because he's seventeen. He's going to sleep now, so don't yell," Sakura chided her. Then she turned to Naruto, and lifted an arm, "Come on, Naruto, can you at least climb up to the lofted bed?"

The blond nodded, and climbed up.

The last thing he heard before falling asleep was little Sakura asking, "Why did he disguise himself as a thirteen year old girl? Is he really a perv?"

* * *

><p>Gaara blinked, and looked around.<p>

He wasn't standing next to an Akatsuki member, so he was in a place where they'd either passed by, and decided to just leave it, or it was a new dimension that they had yet to come across.

From the look of it, this was a dimension that they had yet to come across.

He shielded his eyes as a loud train, his Life System informed him, flew past him, smoke getting into his eyes. When the train had passed, a city was revealed to him.

It was an amazing work of houses and machinery, that built up to a castle at the top of the hill the town was situated at. There was a wall that encircled the hill, and, from where he was standing, the only way you could get into the city was through the train. There were four huge towers, one standing in each direction along the wall. On the top of the castle, there were two towers, as well.

The whole city was created with a low class technology, something that his world had passed: steam.

"Sir! Get away from there!"

He turned to look at the person, and looked at the man's clothes. Then Gaara slipped away, weaving through the few buildings that were next to the train station.

He paused when he passed by the station, looking at all the different types of clothes, and people. They all wore a similar wrist band, something that a guard would check with a machine that would read the wrist band, let out a puff of steam, and show the guard whatever information it held. When he approved it, the gate opened, and the person would be led into the main part of the station.

Gaara looked around, and slipped into the closest door.

The room was dark, but he didn't need the light. He pulled the collar of his shirt down, and the screen on his life system flipped out. He focused on the image of one person who had been waiting in line. Compared to the guard, he had looked like he was foreign, and somehow the foreigner had gotten one of the wrist bands.

If Gaara could find out where the man had gotten the wrist band, he could pass into the city as a foreigner.

He began to create the hologram for the man, with minimal differences, and when he was finished he flipped the screen back into his Life System, adjusted his top, and then initiated the code for the hologram he had created. He looked down, checking to make sure that he was wearing the proper clothes. He lifted his hand to his chin, and felt the strange facial hair that the foreigner had. He didn't like facial hair, but for now he would have to have it.

Then he slipped back out of the room, and looked around. Spotting a guard, he walked up to him, and said, "I'm a traveler, and would like to enter the city. What will I need to enter the city?"

The guard looked at him, and sneered, "You foreigners make me sick." Then the guard winced as he was smacked in the head by a female guard.

"Shut up, Theo. The princess made her choice, now we have to work with these guys. Besides, it's a good opportunity to show these...polytheists...the way of the One Lord." The woman looked Gaara up and down, and said, "Well, come with me, I'll show you where you can get your foreign ID."

He followed the woman's billowing half skirt, keeping an eye on the people around him. All the men who were clean shaven gave him sneers, and what he assumed was rude gestures, while the women would either keep their eyes averted, or give him coy glances.

He was led to a booth, and the man in the booth gave him an aggravated glance before turning to the woman, "Let me guess, another one without an ID. Where do you keep finding them?"

"Hah, this one came up to us."

"How audacious!" the man exclaimed. Then he sighed, "Well, come on, we've got to get your picture taken."

Gaara followed him into the back room of the building. He was seated on a simple stool, and was forced to face an old fashioned camera. The man lifted up a heavy black cloth, and hid behind it. He focused the image and took the picture.

The man left the camera and wandered over to a desk. It wasn't until he moved there that Gaara noticed the pipes and tubings went from the camera to the desk where a wrist band was set up.

The man turned to him, and said, "What's your name?"

Gaara gave him a genteel smile and said, "You seem to know so much about me from my religion alone, why don't you tell me?"

The man scoffed, "That's because you're all the same. You always have names like Bahir or something."

"How did you know my name was Bahir?" Gaara asked in fake excitement.

"Hah, and I bet you're from Adaba. You're all from Adaba."

"You're correct."

"You look like you're thirty, too," the man said, narrowing his eyes at him.

"Sorry, sir, but I'm actually thirty-three," Gaara said. If he agreed too much with the man, it would be too suspicious.

"Huh, you look younger."

"It must be all the fruits my mother told me to eat," he said with a shrug.

"What's your birthdate?"

"January 19."

"Of...that'd be 1825, right?" the man mumbled, and then pilfered a calendar off of his desk, and flipped through it. "Right."

He went back to tinkering with the wrist band, and did one last adjustment before removing it from the pipes.

"Here you are," he said, a scowl back on his face. "Don't think we're friends because of this."

Gaara nodded, and stood up. When he exited the back room, the guards woman was still there. She glanced at him, and then said, "Come on."

He frowned at her, and asked, "Why are you showing me the way? I thought I was a 'foreigner?'"

"Yes, but the princess married one of you, and the One Lord always says to forgive others, for they do not know they have sinned, and if I mistreat you, I'm the one who has sinned. Besides, it gets bad out here after dark. It would be cruel to leave any unprotected soul out here at night," she said, looking over her shoulders at the wasteland that was in front of the station.

Then they were in front of the ID checker.

"Another one, Giselle?"

"Shush, they aren't so bad if you're nice."

"Whatever you say," the checker said, motioning him forward. "Come on now, show me your ID."

Gaara lifted up his wrist, and the man touched the scanner to the wrist. The red head coughed from the steam, but the other two ignored it, while the man checked everything out.

"Your name is Bahir? That's the second person today to have that name," the checker said.

"It's a good name," Gaara mumbled.

"Eh, if you say so, personally, John is a better name, it's more upfront and honest than Bahir. All right, off you go, make sure you get on the third carriage. The first is for nobility, and the second is for shift guards. You might want to just head to the fourth carriage, though. Most of the bourgeois don't like you foreigners, and you might not make it out of there alive."

"I'll keep your advice in mind," he said, before slipping through the open gate, heading to the train on the other side. He went to the fourth carriage; he didn't want to cause undue harm to civilians.

The fourth carriage had a small smattering of people, most of them keeping their faces in newspapers, and avoided looking at him. The carriage was bare and the seats against the walls of the carriage were hard and flat.

He sat in one, far away from the other people in the carriage. After he sat down, a few more people entered, one causing Gaara to wonder at, giving that the woman was dressed in clothes that were finer than any of the clothes the others were wearing in the carriage put together. He had no time to wonder about her state of dress as the train began to chug, rocking the carriage to and fro as it started.

"First time on the train?" the woman asked, sitting next to him after the train steadied out.

He gave her a stiff nod.

She laughed, "Don't be like that! I'm for you guys. It's not right that we took away your homeland. Everyone thinks that because the princess married one of you that we'll be equals, but really, it's the opposite. The princess has caused so much controversy, that I doubt it's helped anything, no matter how well she meant." She smoothed out the newspaper on her lap, drawing Gaara's eyes.

He frowned at the image he saw on it. He asked, "May I see that?"

The woman looked at him, and asked, "Can you read this?"

Gaara looked down and said, "Um, I just wanted to look at the picture."

"Oh, you mean this," she said, pointing at the front page image, and then she placed it down on her lap. "Amazing, isn't it? That The Ghost has been caught? It says that he was a noble, but he was such a loner, that only a few nobles would remember to invite him to the balls, but he wouldn't go to them any of them."

"So what's going to happen to him?" he asked, gesturing towards the picture.

"The Ghost? Oh, he's on death row. He's going to be hanged on Executioner's Hill in a week."

"Why? What did he do?"

She frowned at him, "I know that you're from far away, but surely you've heard of the great assassin, The Ghost. The one who enters a noble house, and assassinates so quickly and silently, that there has never been a cry for help, or a whisper heard. The only reason they were able to catch him was because he left a witness alive at the place of his last hit."

"A witness?"

"Yes, a young girl. The newspaper says that she looked similar to a picture of his mother, so psychologists are assuming that he didn't kill her because of that."

"Where are they keeping him?"

She gave him a narrowed look, "You're awfully curious about someone who's a criminal."

"He's a famous criminal, right? It makes really good gossip," he said, with a smooth ease.

"And you don't even have an accent for someone visiting for their first time," she noted, smoothing the paper, running her hand over the pale face on the picture.

"Ah, I had a really good teacher, and practiced," he said, blanking his face.

"Is that so?" she asked, and then she was pinning him to the wall, her forearm against his collarbone. "Who are you? Are you a partner of The Ghost? Of Gaara?"

"No, how would I even know him? I'm just a foreigner," he said, looking straight into her eyes.

She bit her lip, and looked down, "You're not just a foreigner. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so suspicious." She removed her forearm, and sat next to him, "It's just, The Ghost was a terror, not just for nobles, everyone. No one was safe from him once he got a hit, and you were asking a lot of questions. I don't ever want that man out on the streets again."

"I understand," he said. He could be a terror, but that didn't mean he didn't have his own side of the story.

"Anyway, he's kept in the castle dungeon. He's in the most secure cell they could find, and he has more than two guards watching over his cell. On top of that, they also have Angel Screens."

"Angel Screens?"

She sighed, "You really don't know anything, do you? The One Lord loved his children so much, that a child of the One Lord, who represented the best of humankind, would become an angel when they died, and help those that resonated with a part of them. It's a rare occurrence. There are so few who can become angels, there has only been one from our time period, and he only comforts those who are lonely."

"So, why would they need these Angel Screens? They seem harmless."

"Most of them are, but there are a few who have become dark angels because of the people they talk to."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, for example, if this Angel of Loneliness met with a person who was lonelier than even he was, he might be moved by the person, and try to save him, even if he was the worst of humankind. When that happens, he's wooed away from the One Lord's light, and his wings turn black. It doesn't matter if the person was as good as the angel, as soon as his attention is moved from the One Lord's work, he has fallen, and his wings turn black.

"In some cases, it's not so bad, he might still be good and kind, but his focus is turned towards the person. It can turn bad, though. There have been cases where an angel's mind has broken from being around too long, seeing too much trauma that a human couldn't even begin to wonder at. Those angels have been known to go on massive killing sprees, and they resonate with the worst of humankind.

"The guards are worried that one of those angels will show up and help The Ghost. It's strange, though, the Angel Screens can only detect the dark angels."

"Why?"

"No one knows, but it's suspected that the One Lord protects the white winged angels, and lets them do their jobs, no matter what happens. There is a saying that 'whatever happens, happens for a reason that only the One Lord knows.'"

"He seems kind of contradictory."

She laughed, "He is, but the one thing that always remains the same is that he loves us, and died for us."

"If he's a...god, then how can he die for you?"

"He sent his child to earth, and when the child died, it died for our sins. He is one with the child."

There was a screech of metal on metal, and the train came to a stuttering halt.

"It seems that we are in the city. If you ever need any help, come around," she said, handing him a piece of paper. "I'll vouch for you, and where my contacts come up short, my...friend's contacts shouldn't."

Gaara look at the paper, seeing that the words were in a different language than that of the one on the paper before the ring changed them so he could recognize the letters. "Who is your friend, and why would you help me?"

"My friend is," she smiled, "She is the apprentice of the princess. She can do things that I can't, but we try our best to create equals. Anyway, we better go, or the train will start up again."

He nodded, and stood up, trailing the magenta haired woman.

She paused outside of the train, and said, "You know, I was so relieved when he was put in jail. My...friend is in a position of high status, and any day The Ghost could've gotten a hit on her. I would have killed him for that."

"What he's done is wrong, but you forget one thing."

"What's that?" she asked, turning to look at him, eyes narrowing behind rusty glasses.

"He was merely a tool for those who were willing to pay for someone's death. He was just better at it than they were," Gaara paused, and tilted his head towards her. "Thank you for the information, and your help."

"You're welcome," she said, her voice quiet.

Then they departed. Gaara waited until she was out of sight, before slipping into an unused restroom. He removed the hologram, rubbing his now smooth chin. He then went to work on creating a guard's uniform for himself, and a new face. The only reason he would think that his original face would help him out in this world was as a distraction, if he chose to save himself from an untimely death at Executioner's Hill.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to save himself.

* * *

><p>He woke up to an alarm going off. His eyes were bleary as he looked around, wondering how he'd managed to float in his sleep, only to remember that he was sleeping in a lofted bed.<p>

He crawled out of the bed, and looked up at little Sakura, who was hitting a button on the alarm clock, turning it off, and rolled over to face away from the clock. His brows puckered at the dilemma. He sighed, and looked down at the larger Sakura who was in the mushroom chair, sleeping, the alarm not waking her.

He walked over to little Sakura's lofted bed, and poked her shoulder. She swatted it away, and he said, "Sakura, you need to wake up, the alarm went off."

"Go 'way, Mom. I still have time," she mumbled.

"Sakura," Naruto said, trying to make his voice stern.

"Wha-?" she said, blinking her eyes at him, then she screamed, and scrambled away from him. She placed a hand over her heart, and said, "Oh, Naruto. Sorry, you scared me. Um," she swallowed, "Do you need anything?"

"Your alarm went off, and you didn't wake up," he said with a frown.

"Oh, that's okay. I usually hit the snooze a few times before waking up. Um, do you, do you need to take a shower?"

Naruto considered it for a second and then nodded.

"Um, the door's right behind you. Make sure to lock the other door in there, or you will be a surprise to my suit-mates. Oh, and there's a towel hanging behind this door that you can use," then she said quietly, "I'll just have to do laundry tonight."

He grimaced, and said, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be an inconvenience."

"Ah, leave her be, the work'll be good for her," the older Sakura said, yawning, and stretching her arms.

"Says you!" Sakura yelled at her, throwing a slipper at the older Sakura's head.

She caught the slipper in her left hand, and gave the little Sakura a challenging smile, "Is that the best you can do?"

Naruto edged out of the room, and closed the door, managing to make it in before getting hit by a pillow.

It took him three minutes before he could figure out how to get the shower to work. It was strange, he was used to the room washing him, instead of washing himself. The shower in his world had the soap in the water, so all he had needed was a rinse, but the water here was clear. The soaps were in bottles, and he hoped that he used each one properly, as some of the words were strange to him.

When he came out of the bathroom, dressed, his hair dripping water on his clothes, he asked, "Sakura, why is it that I have a hard time understanding some of the words here?"

Sakura looked up from the magazine in her lap, and said, "It's because of the necklace. It translates the language perfectly for you, and you don't even realize that you're speaking a different language when it's on, but sometimes it has a problem discerning words. You can still get the gist of what it's saying, but you won't be able to write a novel in this dimension's language."

"Why's that?"

Sakura sighed, and walked past him, getting the towel, and dropped it on his head, before scrubbing it, "You're wet hair is annoying me. Don't you know how to dry yourself off? You know, for a guy, you smell awfully pretty," she teased

"The room did everything for me, and isn't my disguise as a girl?" he mumbled, flushing. He winced as she tugged hard on his hair.

"There," she said, snapping the towel away from his head. "Now, the reason, is that written language is the code of the spoken language. You never learn to read first then talk. You talk first then read. Some places don't even have a written code for their language. The necklace is focused more on the spoken language than it is on the written language, because you have to have the spoken language, you don't necessarily need the written one. It prioritizes. However, as you start looking at more writing from a world, it gets easier to understand the written codes."

"That just seems compli-" A knock on the door interrupted the younger Sakura, and she looked at the two teens with a wide eyes.

Sakura sighed, and went over to the window, she had one leg out of it, and then turned to Naruto, and said, "We'll talk some more later, but right now, you need to switch to Nana, and I need to disappear."

Then she dropped out of the window.

"Lucky," the little Sakura mumbled.

Naruto closed his eyes, and concentrated. Then he opened them, and touched the pigtails that were now on the sides of her head.

She smiled, and said, "Aren't you going to answer the door?"

Sakura frowned at her, and said, "You're strange. It's like Nana is a whole new persona for you. You're not as fake as Naruto."

Nana frowned, and said, "I guess it's something I need to practice, huh."

She smirked, "Yeah, like you need to work on your force field. You were terrible yesterday."

Nana narrowed her eyes, and said, "The door?"

"Right, right," Sakura said, smiling. She looked through the peep hole, and grinned. "This is perfect!"

She opened the door, and said, "Hinata! Ino! Perfect timing! I need your help! Or rather, _Nana_ needs your help."

"Nana?" Ino asked, and she looked around Sakura, and saw her.

She gave them a hesitant wave, and said, "Hello."

"See, Nana is from the countryside, you know?" Ino gasped, and Hinata nodded. "Right, so she needs our help with being a city girl, okay?"

They all shared dark smirks, and edged towards Nana, who backed away until her back hit the wall.

"First lesson to being a superhero, Nana, don't get yourself backed into a wall," Sakura said, an evil grin on her face.

* * *

><p>AN: I hoped you enjoyed little Sakura vs. big Sakura. =) I tried to make each dimension's person a little bit different, because they take different paths, and have different lifestyles than each other.

I hope you don't mind Nana. I tried to make sure that she was Naruto, but a little different, as he's...roleplaying(?) her. So, he's trying to act like a girl, while still being himself (as I represent him from Stagnare). (And he's weak! Why didn't you at least do pushups, Naruto? Like Uncle Iroh! Ah, well, you win some, you lose some.)

I am so, so sorry this was so long! However, this is only because Gaara went off to a different dimension. I wasn't even going to include it, but...I decided it would be good. Next chapter shouldn't be so long. =) So, yeah! It's finally starting! Oh, and I'll add things to my profile about each dimension, what inspired me, etc, etc. So, if you're reading this, and the chapter thing has 'Next' don't go to my profile! There'll be spoilers.

Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it!

P.S. *Spoiler* Just saying this before someone says something: I know my summary is wrong, that Madara is not Madara, and that it's Tobi (whoever he is, maybe his real name is Tobi and he came from another world to screw with the Naruto world's mind.), but, until we know who he really is, I'm just going to leave it as is (which means it may not change for another year...why must you wreak my FanFics, Kishi! First Iris, now I'm With You! What's next? Ah, the joys of being a fanfic writer of an incomplete work.)

_B/N: Isn't this addicting? Along with _Iris_? It's like you can't stop reading, right?...You're begging for more, aren't you? You're salivating at the prospect of more delicious writing…I can see it in your mind's eye. It's like an entire bottle of hard whiskey for a recovering alcoholic…it's so tempting and no matter what you do, you'll always be an addict…and you'll always want more! *sighs* Oh, yeah, this story is like a drug. ^^~_


	4. The Mask

**Title**: I'm With You

**Author**: LadySable (LiveJournal)/StoryBard(here)

**Pairings**: GaaNaruGaa

**Rating**: T

**WARNING**: This will have heterosexuality and homosexuality. If either offend you, this is not the story for you.

**Disclaimer**: The characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I do not make money from this fan made work. Also...I don't technically own Ms. Carr, Mr. Luster, and Mr. Smith as they are based off of real life people, my mom, my middle school math teacher, and my middle school science teacher. Also, I don't own a _Series of Unfortunate Events_.

**Summary**: Gaara was kidnapped when he was five. Naruto when he was nine. Eight years later, Naruto is saved, and has to venture out to different dimensions to find Gaara, and stop Madara's plan to throw the universe into chaos.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3: The Mask<strong>

"Did you have to go so far as curling my pigtails?" Nana asked, pulling on the curl until it was straight, and then released it, letting it bounce back to a curl.

They were sitting in a classroom. Sakura had led her through the dizzying amount of halls before stopping in front of this room. It was different from the classes she went to in Stagnare.

"Yep."

"What if my transformation broke? How would you explain that to them?"

"But it didn't, and now you know you can curl your hair in that disguise," Sakura said, flipping the page of her textbook.

"Did you have to tell the whole class that I was from the country? They're giving me strange looks," Nana mumbled to Sakura.

She looked up, and glared at the people staring at her. "That's because anyone who lives outside of Kitsukaa City thinks we're backwards."

"Why's that?"

Sakura paused mid-flip, and said, "I don't know. Something to do with the heroes, though."

"The heroes?"

"Yeah, something about us siding with Akatsuki, but that's not right. We do work for the government, not Akatsuki. Akatsuki's with the bad guys."

"Nana! Sakura! Would you like to share your conversation with the rest of the class?"

Nana looked up to see their teacher, Ms. Carr hovering over them.

"N-No, Ms. Carr," Sakura said. "I'm sorry, but Nana was asking questions about the text because she just transferred here, and she needed help."

She frowned over at the pink haired girl, who was doing her best to look angelic. Ms. Carr tsked, and turned to Nana, "You're new, so I'll let you off this once, but next time you have a question, ask me, okay?"

She nodded, and Ms. Carr turned back to the front of class.

Nana skimmed through the book, and was fascinated by the history of this dimension. It was similar, and yet different from her own. There were wars, and religions, and the like, and, yet, there were people who had strange powers that would be found, and turned the tides of battle. People who would find they controlled the seas in the ancient times where sailing was the best way of traveling, and would stop trade and war ships with a simple flick to their wrists.

Then there was a person who could control people through the mind. She tried to read it, but the bell rang. Sakura sighed, rubbing her head. "I really dislike history. There's so much to memorize. Next is math, though!" she smiled at Nana. "And Naruto and Sasuke are in that class, so it should be fun!"

Sakura grabbed her hand, and dragged her along.

"Sakura! Do we have to rush?" Nana yelled at her.

"Yes! If we don't, all the seats by Sasuke will be taken, and Naruto normally sits by him, so if we don't hurry, you won't get to talk to them!"

Sakura slid through a door, and, while still holding on to Nana's wrist, weaved through a crowded room.

She managed to bump into no one; Nana managed to bump into every one.

Sakura jerked on Nana's wrist, causing her to crash into the pink haired girl. She frowned at Nana, who had slid to the floor, and said, "You're really light. Is that because you're in-disguise, or is your weight the same as it usually is?"

Nana frowned from her position on the floor, and said, "I don't know, but it might be good to check out. If something like that could give me away, it wouldn't be good."

Sakura whipped her head around, and then said, "Hurry, and get into the seat beside me, they're coming, and if you're not sitting, someone will take it."

She nodded, and got up, moving into the seat.

Nana watched with interest as Sasuke and Naruto entered. Sasuke was like a king, looking down at his admirers, while Naruto was more like a prince. She frowned, it was strange to think of her name in that kind of context, but it was true. While Sasuke held himself above the people, Naruto, though friends with Sasuke, was more approachable than the dark haired man. Sasuke didn't spare Sakura a glance, before sitting down in front of her.

"Sakura! Nana! It's good to see you!" Naruto said, grinning at them, disconcerting Nana. "How's your first day so far?" he asked.

He sat on his knees in the desk chair; backwards so that he could look at her.

Nana said, "It's been good. Sakura has been kind to lead me around, and I've learned many interesting things. The bell rang before I could read it, but do you know about an Uchiha Itachi?"

There was a loud bang, and she jumped.

"Don't mention that name again," Sasuke hissed, towering over her. One second she was fine, the next she was breathing hard.

"Sasuke! Back off!" Sakura yelled, before coming over to Nana, and placing a hand over her forehead. "Are you okay?"

"Someone open a window," Sakura ordered. Then she took Nana's hand and lead her over to the window.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked her.

She nodded, unable to speak as she tried to catch her breath.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Are you claustrophobic, or something? Do you have asthma? Did Sasuke scare you?" as she said that, she glared at the dark haired man, who was sitting in his desk, looking straight at the board, and not paying attention to them.

Nana coughed, and shook her head, "No, it was just unexpected. I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. I'll be fine over here."

Sakura frowned at her, "Okay, but if something else happens, tell me."

Nana nodded, and stared out the window, waiting for the bell to ring. She jerked in surprise when she saw Naruto moving his stuff next to her. She looked up in surprise, and he grinned. "I can't let a new teammate sit by herself. Besides, it's lonely, when you're by yourself," he said, his eyes soft.

She nodded, and said, "Thanks. It's kind of you to sit by me, but what about the other two?"

"Hmm? Oh, Sasuke and Sakura? Well, Sasuke's a bastard, but Sakura will keep him company, for now. You're the one who's alone. Besides, it's gotta suck to hypervenaliate on the first day of school."

"Hyperventilate," Nana corrected. She looked around the room, and watched as the other students would look away. She gave him a small smile, "Bad enough that they already think I'm weird because I'm from the country. It's okay, though. I'm not going to be here too long. I'm just helping Tsunade out."

"Ahem, class is starting," an older man said. He had to be in his sixties, and was sporting a shiny top, the only hair he had was on his sides. "Now, doodle-bugs, here's what we're doing today..."

* * *

><p>The only problem his disguise had was the wristband. It still said that he was Bahir, and the technology from this world was too different from any other world he'd been to. He didn't know how to change the ID.<p>

He wandered about the town, looking for something that would help him. He'd wandered up the hill at first, but realized his mistake as the buildings, streets, and shops became cleaner and more tasteful. He frowned, and sighed. It was always the worst coming to a world where Akatsuki wasn't in charge.

He eyed a man who had a weighty pouch that jingled as he strolled the walkways.

In a flash, the pouch was gone, removed from the man's person, and into Gaara's hand. He slipped it into his pocket, checking his surrounding before heading down the cobbled streets until they were just dirt roads. As he wandered down, he changed the clothes he was wearing into something decent, slow enough that no one gave him a second glance. He didn't think the kind of people he'd be talking to would like it that he was pretending to be a guard.

He asked some of the people in the area where he could get a fake ID, and they pointed him towards a blue shingled roof that had two men on either side of the door. He eyed the men leaning against the wall of the building, but, judging from what his System told him, they wouldn't be much trouble, if it came to that sort of thing.

He slipped through the door, and gave a short knock on it, trying not to startle the owner. His brows wrinkled in puzzlement as he eyed a woman with a bed sheet wrapped around her, sitting at a work desk, dark hair falling in waves to her waist. There was lingerie all over the floor.

Her head jerked up, and in one swift movement, she was standing, looking at him. She placed her hand on her hip, "I hope you're not expectin' some tail t'night."

Gaara frowned, and shook his head. "I was hoping to get a fake ID," he said, pointing at the wristband.

The woman smiled, a small gap showing in her otherwise white teeth, "Finally, someone who wants a skill tat's not in t' bed." She cracked her fingers, and took the wristband. She waved him over to a stool by the wall, and set up a camera next to her work desk. With a rapid pace, the whole system was set up in a second, the lingerie on the floor kicked out of the way.

"All right, dearie, say cheese," she chuckled when he gave her a glare through the lens. She snapped the picture, and backed out of the dark curtain. "Now, I'd like t' payment right now, afore I do anythin' else," she said, holding her hand out.

He looked at her, and slipped two coins out of his pocket. "How's this?" he asked, looking at the golden shine of one coin, and the silver shine of the other.

The woman gave him a suspicious look, and snatched up the coins. She checked them, and then placed them down on the counter. Then she got to work, tying her bed sheet, so it wouldn't fall. "Can I get your name, date of birth, and age? I'm assumin' you're a Stogelian," she said.

"What's a common name here?"

"Ah, hidin' from t' law, well, I'd say James is a good name. Date of birth and age?"

"January 19, and thirty-three."

The woman turned to him, a frown on her face, "You look like you're twenty-five."

"I had a good diet."

"Hmph," she snorted, and tweaked with the wrist band before handing it over.

He took it, and then paused, and asked, "Would you like my wrist band? I don't need it anymore."

"I could use it for parts," she said, and reached over to take the proffered wrist band.

Before she could say anything else, Gaara was out the door.

He wasn't even a minute away from the store, when he heard her screech, "Get that man! He's an Adabian!"

Gaara glared at the road in front of him, and turned towards them. He hadn't considered that they would try to capture him because he had handed over an ID that was foreign.

The men who were coming up to him stopped at his glare.

The largest one shrugged, and said, "Sorry, sir, my mistress has a thing against you guys." Then he threw a punch at Gaara.

He side stepped it with ease, and moved in close to the man, jabbing a pressure point in his neck, and then sweeping his legs out from underneath him. The man groaned when he hit the ground, but other than that, he didn't move.

Gaara paused for a second, before ducking down, avoiding the forearm of the other man. The red head turned on the balls of his feet, sweeping his leg across the ground, causing the man to trip. He rolled to his feet, and pulled his arm back to punch him, but hesitated when he heard a twinkling bell-like sound. Then he released the punch, breaking the man's nose, and knocking him out.

Gaara leaned down and checked the man's pulse, surprised that the man was still alive. He turned the man onto his side so he wouldn't choke on his own blood.

He stood up and walked away from the man, his head turning left and right as he looked for the source of the sound. Yet, he couldn't find it.

Then it happened again.

Gaara paused, his eyes closing as he savored the sound. If he could describe it, he would liken it to the music of stars.

He opened his eyes and looked up. He gasped as he watched an angel with pure white feathers, gilded in silver, flew across the graying sky heading, as far as he could see, to the castle at the top of the hill.

Before he knew it, his feet were following the angel. He frowned down at his feet, and stopped when he realized what was happening. He stamped his feet on the ground, as if they had malfunctioned.

He took a glance around, noticing the cleaner buildings in the lamplight. He shifted into the guard's uniform, and continued on his way to the castle.

* * *

><p>"So, My Dear Aunt Suzanne is actually a mnemonic for how to solve math sequences?" Naruto asked, his brow puckered.<p>

"Yes, see, My stands for multiplication, Dear is division, Aunt is addition, and Suzanne is subtraction."

"I thought it was Suzy?" Sakura asked.

Nana smiled and said, "It could be Sakura, for all I know."

"Yeah! I'll use Sakura instead!" he said, twirling his pencil in his hand before jotting it down. "So why do I have to memorize it this way, instead of, say, Sakura Ate Dear Momochi-Ow!" Naruto yelled when Sakura bopped him on the head. "Friendship abuse!"

"That's because that's the order in which you solve it," Nana said. "You do multiplication first, then division, then addition, then subtraction. If you don't do it in that order the answer you get will be wrong."

"Well," Naruto said with a frown. "Okay."

"Naruto," a low voice said from the doorway.

The hairs on Nana's back went up, as her Life System sent silent alarms to her brain. She looked over, and saw a man with blood red hair, pale green eyes, surrounding by a ring of black, and a strange symbol over his left eye. She blinked as her mind caught up to her Life System and realized that this was the same man who attacked them yesterday. She didn't know when her System had gotten the information. It had never happened like this in her world, but, then again, she had never met someone in disguise there, either.

"Gaara!" the blond said, ecstatic.

Naruto stood up. Nana's eyes widened and she tried to reach out and stop Naruto, but hesitated at the last moment, and watched as the blond skipped towards the enemy.

"Who's that?" Nana asked, leaning in towards Sakura.

"Gaara? Gaara's Naruto's best friend. More so than even Sasuke. They have a strange bond," she said, frowning. "I don't know how it happened, either. One day, they didn't even know each other, the next, they were both bleeding, but Naruto was hanging around his neck and laughing, and Gaara, well, he didn't look like he wanted to kill him. Which is saying something because back then, he always had a murderous glint in his eyes."

"Sakura, stop talking about Gaara behind his back," Naruto scolded her. Then he turned and smiled at Nana, "Don't listen to her, she lies. Anyway, Nana, this is Gaara, Gaara, this is Nana. She's teaching me how to do my math homework."

She gave him a guarded look, and blinked in curiosity as he returned the same look. Then he turned to Naruto, "If you need help in math, you can ask me."

"Yeah, but she's new," Naruto said, moving a desk so that they had a circle of four. He sat down at his desk, and patted the one next to him, and said, "Sit down, Gaara, we can spend the last of this period studying." Then he frowned, and asked, "What do you normally have this hour?"

"Science, but Mr. Smith doesn't care what we do. In fact, they were watching _A Series of Unfortunate Events_ when I peeked into the room, so I decided to see what your class was doing."

Sakura frowned, "But you can't do that, Gaara. The teacher needs to know where you're at."

"He does," Gaara said, reaching into his pocket, and bringing out a slip of paper. "I told him I went to the library, and, as long as I'm back before the end of class, he won't care."

She sighed and said, "You're right, he won't care. He's such a terrible teacher, and he's going to ruin our high school careers."

Naruto sniggered, "Who calls high school a _career_?"

"Shut up! I'm sure lots of people call high school a career, right Nana?"

"Hmm?" Nana said, turning away from her watch on Gaara, to look at Sakura. "Sorry, I blanked out."

"Ahem," a gravelly voice said behind them. They turned and looked up at the math teacher.

"Uh, hi, Mr. Luster," Naruto said.

"You're supposed to be doing your math work, not talking, and what's Gaara doing here? If you doodle-bugs don't straighten up, I'll assign more homework."

"Aww, but Mr. Luster, Gaara was helping me understand some hard concepts! Like My Dear Aunt Sakura!"

Mr. Luster frowned, and said, "That's My Dear Aunt Suzanne, Naruto. Or Suzy."

"Oh. I thought Sakura would be easier to remember, 'cause she's my friend and all," Naruto said, jabbering on. "By the way, could you help me with this equation? I can't seem to remember if I need to divide the five first, or if I should subtract the eight."

Nana watched as Naruto drew in the teacher's attention, letting Gaara escape from the classroom. The red head paused by the door, and sent her a narrowed glare, then left.

"Every cotton-picken'-chicken-pluckin'-time, Naruto! Always division then subtraction! Think of it like this, division cuts down the larger number into a smaller number, then subtraction cuts that number down into a more precise number. It's the opposite with multiplication and addition. Multiplication expands it to a huge number, where addition makes it a more precise number."

"Ah, I think I got it, Mr. Luster, thanks for the help!"

Mr. Luster stood up with a crack, and he frowned when he saw Gaara's empty desk. "Wasn't Gaara just here?"

"You must be seeing things in your old age," Naruto said. "Gaara was never here."

"Huh, is that so? Well, alrighty then. He's always by you anyway, so it wouldn't surprise me if I imagined him there."

"Did I hear that right?" Nana asked them when he left.

"Hear what right?" Sakura asked, looking over her problems.

"Every cotton picking...? Chicken plucking time...?"

Naruto and Sakura sniggered. "Yeah, he's been known to have yelled that loud enough for the whole hallway to hear it. He's from the country, so it's just a quirk of his, but he's a good math teacher, despite calling us doodle-bugs and the like."

"I find it inspiring," Naruto said.

"Yeah, and I can't believe you pulled a 'these are not the drones you are looking for' on him," Sakura said, tossing her pencil cap eraser at him.

He caught it, and grinned, "I've always wanted to see if that would work."

Nana shook her head, and then said, "Naruto, I don't think you should go near Gaara."

Naruto stopped laughing, and glared at her, "Why should I listen to you? You've been here one day. Gaara's been here my whole life. If anything, I'd trust his advice over yours."

"Have you ever been over to his house?" Nana asked.

"No, and he's never seen mine, either."

"Then how do you know that he's safe?"

"He's _my_ friend," Naruto hissed. Then he stood up and said, "And if you're going to accuse him of something just because you're jealous of our relationship, then I don't think that I should hang out with you anymore."

Nana bit her lip, unsure of what to make of that. She wasn't jealous, how could she be jealous when he was her, and it made no sense for her to be jealous.

"Naruto, calm down," Sakura said, looking between Nana and the boy. "She has a point, you really don't know much about Gaara."

"Are you siding with her, too, Sakura?"

"I'm not taking any sides! I just don't want you to get hurt, and Nana had a good point, besides, remember the last time someone told you something, and you didn't take it into consideration?"

"Yeah, and someone got hurt," Naruto mumbled. "Fine, I'll think about it, but you need a better argument next time," he said to Nana.

She nodded, and looked over at Sakura who just shrugged.

* * *

><p>"Okay, since you aren't getting a uniform, you need to at least wear a mask," Kakashi said, handing her a plain black eye mask.<p>

She put it on, and looked in the mirror, and said, "I look like Gaara, now."

Naruto cracked up. "You have a sense of humor! You just needed to find it!"

She gave him a dull look, and said, "What do we do on these...patrols?"

"Nothing, really. We just wait for a call from headquarters, if there's a group closer to the attack, they'll handle it, if we're closer, we handle it."

Nana looked over at Naruto as he adjusted his goggles on his head, and asked, "Why do you wear goggles? Doesn't it hinder you?"

Naruto shook his head, and said, "Nah, see, I can run faster than most humans see, and you wouldn't think there'd be side effects, but my eyes dry out from the wind, and bugs tend to hit my face, and if they hit my eyes, I could lose one. The goggles have saved my eyes at least twenty times."

"I didn't realize there would be a drawback to your powers."

"There's a drawback to any power you use," Kakashi said. "I can copy any superpower for ten minutes, but if I use it too many times, I become weak, too weak, and I'm more or less useless when that happens. Sasuke can see things in slow motion, but if he doesn't snap out of it, then he starts moving in slow motion himself. Sakura has super strength, but if she's not careful, and not wearing gloves, she could break her fingers by hitting something that's a little too hard."

"Then wouldn't it be better to never use your power?"

"Would it? If you have the power to save someone from, say, an oncoming bus, would you just wait on the side and let it careen into the person, or would you stick an arm out and save them? Some people justify it as doing good or bad, and to do good means to save the person, and they wouldn't think twice. Some would say the person deserved it for not looking both ways.

"Would it be better to never use your power?" Kakashi asked. "That's a question that only you can answer, but when you have people you love and care about that are weaker than you then, most of the time, the answer is yes. You want to protect them, even if they are safe at home. When you know there are bad things out there, you want to protect them, even if it would be rare for them to encounter danger."

Nana frowned, "But if you're trying to protect them from a force that's against your own beliefs, wouldn't the opposing force want to use them against you?"

Kakashi gave her a hard look, and said, "Yes, it's a possibility. That's why we wear masks, and try to protect our identity."

Nana flicked her simple mask, "How is this flimsy thing supposed to protect my identity? For that matter, anyone who saw Naruto would know it's him because of his spiky hair, and Sakura and Sasuke aren't much better."

He gave a short chuckle, and said, "You'd be surprised what people miss when they think that it's an impossibility. So, Nana, where did you go to school before coming here?"

"Why?"

"Why do I want to know? Well, that's because I was trying to keep this black and white, and then you change it to gray. You seem to have a clear grasp that not everything is black and white, unlike my students."

"I'm older than I look," Nana said.

"And how old are you?"

"13," she said with a grin.

"Master Kakashi! We're ready to go whenever you are!" Naruto yelled at him.

"Are you ready for your first patrol?"

"Sure," Nana said.

They walked out of the building, and Kakashi pointed up at the roofs. Naruto was gone, and a second later he was at the top, glaring at Sasuke.

"How did Sasuke get up there as fast as Naruto?" Nana asked, frowning. "You said that he could see things in slow motion, but does that mean that he can make his surroundings move in slow motion?"

Kakashi nodded, and said, "Pretty much, and while his surroundings are in slow motion, it seems like he's going incredibly fast, which is why he annoys Naruto so much. Naruto's technically faster, but Sasuke's power makes it null. However, if they had a lengthy fight, Naruto would win. Sasuke can use his power for about ten minutes, but Naruto's only relies on how much energy he has, which is pretty much never-ending.

"Sasuke had to learn to make use of his ten minutes, and can beat almost anyone within that time limit."

"'Almost?'"

"Well," Kakashi said with what seemed like a smile. "I am his teacher, if I couldn't figure out his weaknesses and learn how to exploit them, I wouldn't be worth much, now would I?"

Nana smiled, and then frowned as a beeping was heard. She watched as Kakashi and Sakura reacted to it, flipping out what looked like a more high tech version of the remote controls in her history books from Stagnare.

"What are those?" she asked.

"Cell phones," Sakura mumbled, watching the screen. Then she looked over at Kakashi, "Master, I think this is for us. We're not the closest, but we'll get there the fastest. Besides, we get the least amount of injuries when fighting Sand Man."

Kakashi nodded, and said, "Then go. I'll watch from a little ways away."

Sakura nodded, and grabbed Nana.

"Why won't he come with us and help?" Nana hollered at her, as Sakura jumped up onto the roof, nodding at the boys.

They grinned, and were off, speeding ahead of them, but not too fast that Sakura and Nana wouldn't be able to see them.

"Well, if he always helped us, we wouldn't be able to learn to do this ourselves. So he stays in the back, and watches us. He'll critique us on better forms during night school, and if we need his help, he'll come into the fray," she said, answering Nana's question.

"What about last night? That was a little dangerous."

"Well, Naruto and I were trying to get Sasuke to go out to eat with us, it was technically our day off, and Master wasn't with us. We were the ones closest to the scene, so we had to go."

Nana nodded, and let Sakura drag her to where Sand Man was attacking, her eyes wandering over the city. Almost every building had more than one story, and they were all sleek. It was strange seeing a world at the brink of a turning point, one that would probably lead to a world similar to Stagnare, but different. Yet, from what she had learned so far, it might take a turn that would be even worse than Stagnare, giving that not everyone seemed to like being rescued in this world.

She didn't have long to look, as a crash in front of her indicated that they were there.

Nana gasped as a wave of sand crashed over a building that had to be fifty feet tall. Sakura stopped on the roof next to the now skeleton building. They looked up and saw Sand Man floating on a cloud above them, imperious.

Naruto was at the edge of the building they were at, watching the people in the building, somehow safe, scatter away from the battle. He glared up at their enemy, and stalked to Sakura.

"Toss me up there, Sakura," he said, pointing at the floating man.

She nodded, and laced her fingers together, kneeling down. Then in one throw, she tossed him so high that he was next to Sand Man, and almost punched him, but the sand stopped him from landing the hit.

Nana watched as Naruto tried to punch him with the other arm, but, again, the sand protected the man, even with Naruto trying to hit him as fast as he could.

Then he fell, no longer having the inertia to stay floating in the air.

He was six feet above ground, when Sasuke dived, and saved him, the two rolling together into the ground.

She frowned at what looked like a pillow of sand that would have saved Naruto from his fall and created less injury than the rolling save had gotten him.

Nana looked up at Sand Man, and brought up the information she had on Gaara, and it was confirmed; he was Sand Man.

She watched the bickering Naruto and Sasuke, and turned to Sakura, and asked, "Can you toss me like you did Naruto?"

Sakura hesitated, and said, "Yes, but, if you fall, you might not survive."

"Naruto might not have, either," she pointed out.

"That's different, though. Naruto has had training. I saw you last night, though. You're not strong, at all. I don't know what your world is like, but it hasn't prepared you for a fall from ten stories up."

"Please? I promise I'll put up the force field if I fall."

Sakura sighed, and kicked the dirt before she said, "Fine, but I'm only doing this because you're technically older than me. Don't blame me if you die."

She cupped her hands together, and Nana set her feet in it, and then she was flying.

She gasped as her stomach dropped, leaving her feeling empty, and thrilled, adrenaline pumping through her. The sky turning as she flew across it, her body twisting into a simple flip from the force of the push. Then she noticed how fast she was coming to her destination, and blanked all of her thoughts, focusing on one thing.

Her eyes met sea-foam green, and she smiled as she flew past him, grabbing onto the turban that hid his face.

He was shocked, eyes wide, before glancing down at what she assumed was Naruto. Then she was gone, dropping down. She curled into a ball, clutching the turban to her middle, squeezing her eyes shut, and willing the force field to work.

There was a bang, as the field smacked into the hard asphalt of the street. She opened her eyes, surprised that she was still alive, and that she was sitting on the ground. The force field had hit the ground, and then sunk into it, leaving her to rest on the ground. Nana stood up, turban in hand, and looked up at Sand Man.

Then she scowled as she saw a cloud of sand obscuring the boy's face.

Naruto jogged over to her, and asked, "What the hell were you doing? Do you realize how much danger you could have been in? And why didn't you at least punch him? Instead, all you got was this turban thing," he said, lifting it up with a finger.

"I don't suppose you saw his face between the time I took off the turban, and the sand cloud, did you?"

He frowned, and said, "No, why?"

She sighed, and said, "No reason."

"Are you okay, Nana?" Kakashi asked, causing her to jump.

"Hey, you never ask us if we're okay from a fall that high!" Naruto complained.

"That's because Tsunade didn't care if you fell, but she ordered me to take care of Nana, and from the way she smiled, I'm not willing to find out what'll happen if something happens to her."

Naruto scoffed, and looked up to where Sand Man had been at, only to frown when he saw that the man had disappeared. "So, did we win?"

Nana frowned at him, "Does it matter who the winner is?"

"Yeah, 'cause if we win, it means we're getting stronger!"

"What'll you do when you're at the peak of your strength, when you've beaten everyone down, and proved your opposition that they were in the wrong?"

"Uh," Naruto paused. "I don't know. It's not up to me to decide, Tsunade is our boss, so wouldn't she be the one answering that question?

"I thought you were going to take Tsunade's position, Naruto," Kakashi said.

"I am!"

"Well, then think about this now, because you'll have to think about it eventually."

Kakashi waved in Sakura and Sasuke, calling their group together.

"We'll patrol for another hour or two, and then we'll head to night class, okay?"

* * *

><p>"Your name, sir?"<p>

"James."

"Okay, I'll set you over to guard duty," the thick man leaned over to open a desk drawer and slid what looked like a low-tech version of a gun over to Gaara. He took it with ease of familiarity, and looked at the man.

"Hmph, well, you'll be guarding the Ghost for your first round."

Gaara frowned, "Sir, isn't that too early for a newcomer like me?"

He'd managed to get into the castle in the morning, and, now, it was noon. They thought he was just transferring from day watch, to being a dungeon guard, but it was a quick transition, he was surprised that he didn't need more identification to move.

The man leaned forward, his hands intertwined in front of him, and rested his bushy mustache against it. "You see, soldier, at first many guards were happy to look over the prisoner. They laughed and jeered, and peed their pants when the Ghost glared at them, but it was all in good fun to them. Then the Ghost started talking to himself, or maybe to a voice―"

"Could it have been an angel?"

The man burst out in laughter. When he calmed he said, "An angel? What angel would have sympathy for him?" Then he turned serious, "Anyway, so the Ghost began to talk of each crime he committed in excruciating detail, and now no one wants to even go near him, afraid that he'll break out and kill them all." He leaned back, and crossed one leg over the other, "So, there you go, that's why a rookie is getting to watch the Ghost. Why don't you go home and tell your wife about your brave deed tonight," the man guffawed.

Gaara stood, and said, "Don't have a wife, sir."

"Ah, well, to each their own. Besides, they aren't cute anymore. That princess made them all too free and feisty. None of 'em listen to us men anymore, not even my wife," the man said, looking at his drink in remorse. Then he glared up at Gaara, and said, "Well, scat now. He's not going to guard himself."

He nodded, and then paused by the door, "Sir, is it normal to see an angel?"

"Huh? Black winged ones, yes. White ones, no. White ones only reveal themselves to the person they're helping." Then he frowned, "Did you see a black one today? We might have to get more defenses on the prisoner."

"No, sir. I didn't see a black one."

The man calmed down, and Gaara slipped through the door, holding the cape that the guard's uniform required close to his body so that it wouldn't snag in the door. He glared at it, there was no reason for there to be such a bothersome piece of cloth.

He shook his head, and looked down at the scrap of paper the man had given him, and set off on the directions it told him. The castle was like a giant labyrinth, and he was glad for the directions, or he would have never found his way into the dungeons.

He opened the door to the guard's room, and slipped in.

"Man, this is such a drag. I can't go home because my wife hates me. I keep telling her, her brother's the one who put himself in jail, not me. Yet, nothing gets through to her. Oh, what do we have here, a newcomer?"

The red head looked at the man who was talking to the other three people in the room, and nodded.

"I'm Shikamaru," the man said. He jerked his head to a silver haired man next to him, "Kakashi." He nodded towards a man across from him, "Chouji." He nodded towards the last man, and said, "Sai. What's your name?"

"James," Gaara said.

"He has blond hair, Shikamaru," Chouji said as he took a loaf of bread off of the table.

"I can see that."

"What does blond hair have to do with anything?" Gaara asked.

"Well, see, any man who does not have brown hair is fifty percent more likely to have a female companion. They are also seventy-five percent more likely to die because the hero of the story typically has a common hair color to represent the every man whose fantasy they're living out," Shikamaru explained.

"So, either I'm going to die, or I'm going to get a woman?" Gaara asked.

"Or both. You see, the woman could want revenge on you."

"So who's the hero?"

"Now, that's a very good question. See, at first, when we were younger, we assumed it was Naruto. He was too dumb and idiotic to be a hero, but then again, many people love the idiot hero," Shikamaru explained, his expression somber.

"Then he died," Sai said, looking at the table with a blank expression.

Gaara frowned. This world had been no good, then. Pein needed Naruto for his plans.

"Yes, but he turned into an angel, that means we were on the right track," Shikamaru said.

"An angel?" Gaara asked. Maybe this world would work.

Chouji gave a sad smile, "Yeah, it was amazing. It was a surprise, though, but at least he's still alive."

"How is he alive?" Sai hissed. "We can't see him! He can't talk to us! Doubtless we're just small memories in his mind! You know what they say, angels are only focused on the One Lord, they spare no thoughts on anything but him and their job."

"Sorry, Sai," Chouji said. "I forgot that Naruto was a close friend of yours."

"Not just a close friend, he saved me," Sai said, beating a fist against the table. "And I couldn't save him, I couldn't stop him from going after that damned Uchiha."

"Anyway," Shikamaru said, loud enough to draw their attention back to him. "So Naruto was out. Right now, I have it figured that Chouji is the hero."

"No, I'm not, Shikamaru. You are, you're just too lazy to fulfill your potential. Besides, you have a daughter, you should go home and play with her while you have a chance before destiny calls you away from your sweet wife and daughter. Besides, they might have to die to get you motivated."

"I wonder if I would care," Shikamaru muttered. "The way Temari keeps at me, you'd think I'd have enough to file claim for wife abuse."

"You like it," Sai teased. "You're a closet masochist, you like the pain."

"Oi, shut up Sai," Shikamaru growled.

"Get going, we'll initiate the new guard," Kakashi said.

Gaara looked at the man, and was surprised at the burden he seemed to carry. The weight that seemed piled up on his shoulders. He couldn't be over fifty, but he looked seventy.

Kakashi motioned to him to follow, and left the room.

"Don't mention Naruto or Sasuke around Kakashi," Chouji said.

"Why?"

"They were his students. He was already burdening heavy guilt from something that happened in his teens, on top of the fact that his mentor died when he was a young man, and then one student died ten years ago, and the other is leading a rebellion against the monarchy. His life has been tough," Sai said. "I'm the last of his students, along with Sakura, and I was supposed to be a tool for a hidden party that wanted to take over the monarchy when our princess was in a coma."

"I see. I'll refrain from asking, then."

"Oh, and don't shit yourself watching over Gaara. He's just a man."

"Just a man, but a man can be a dangerous thing," Gaara murmured.

"Yeah, but he can also die. You'll see. This Friday he's going to be executed in front of everyone," Sai said.

"I thought it was going to be on Monday?"

"Yeah, well, the princess said that it should be moved up, just in case." Sai shrugged, "It doesn't matter to me, Friday or Monday, he dies."

Gaara nodded, and left the room, looking for Kakashi as he walked through the halls.

Then he heard that sound, the star-like twinkling.

He followed it.

"Ah, I was wondering if you were ever going to show up," Kakashi said, jerking Gaara out of his trance. Kakashi was leaning on the wall, next to a steel door with a wide window that had bars in the window.

"Chouji and Sai were telling me some things."

"I see," Kakashi jabbed his thumb through the window, showing that it wasn't covered in glass. "This is the prisoner. Catch," Kakashi said, tossing some...thing at him. Gaara took it, and looked it over, puzzled. He looked up, and noticed that Kakashi was wearing something similar around his head.

Gaara held the ends of it, that were supposed to completely cover his ears, and put it on. There was an arched metal that held the ends in place over his ears, and another that was wider that looked like green plastic.

Kakashi pointed at the green bit, and said, "This is your Angel Screen. Always have it over your eyes when you're watching the prisoner. It's used to detect dark angels. Also, it has a communicator in your left ear piece. Just push the side button, and you'll connect to anyone who has theirs on."

He listened to Kakashi, but it was difficult to pay attention to him when he could hear the twinkling sound _right there_, and knew that if he turned he'd be able to see the angel that was making the sound. He didn't want to look, though. Not with Kakashi standing there, watching him with tired and battered eyes that took very little joy in life.

The silver haired man sighed, and turned, "Keep an eye out, and don't hesitate to contact us if something seems wrong." He turned down another corridor, and was gone.

Gaara took a shaky breath, and then turned, looking through the window.

He blinked, his eyes blinded by the light in the room that seemed to come from one source: the angel.

The wings were huge, and shown with their own light, each tipped in silver. The man that was attached to those wings, though, was even brighter. His blond hair shone like the sun on a clear day, his blues eyes sparkled like the ocean when the sun hits it, and his smile, his smile was brighter than the moon. And he was talking to that Gaara, the one known as the Ghost, the assassin, and smiling at him.

And the other Gaara was smiling back at the angel. Like they were best friends. Gaara gasped, and sunk down, hiding away from it, from seeing them. His hands clasped around his mouth, tears falling down his eyes.

"Naruto," he heard the other Gaara breathed, the sound slipping through the door.

He had to stifle the sound that wanted to come out of his mouth.

Naruto? The Naruto that was supposed to be bad for him? The one who ruined his life? And yet, this Gaara, this murderer on death row, not much different from himself, was smiling at him, and it wasn't an evil thing, it was a pure smile, a smile from true happiness.

It was like looking in the wrong mirror. The other Gaara was so happy, and he was going to die in five days.

What the hell was going on?

* * *

><p>Nana groaned as she eased into her seat for math. Sakura watched her, and sniggered.<p>

"You're going to be so sore by the end of this week, it's not even going to be funny," Sakura said. "I still can't believe how wimpy you are."

She narrowed her eyes at Sakura, and said, "I keep telling you, I didn't have to exercise on my world."

"It still doesn't explain how you strained a muscle just walking around town," Sakura pointed out.

"My world is technologically more advanced than yours," she said.

"So you have things that carry you around or something?"

Nana paused, unsure of what to say. She didn't know if her world did have things to carry people around. She was sure there was something, but she did remember walking on the streets. She just didn't want to tell this Sakura that she had been imprisoned for most of her life. One of them knowing was bad enough.

"I guess," Nana said with a shrug. "I have a question for you, though."

"Yeah?"

"What's up with those patches you wear on the top of your right arm? You know, that red cloud thing."

"Oh, that? It's just to show that we're heroes, so other heroes won't attack us. Not that that happens often, but it's a good safety measure."

"I see," Nana murmured, then the bell rang, and they headed to the next class.

The lecture dragged on, and her mind wandered, as she already knew what they were learning. So when she saw a flash of red pass by the door, she immediately raised her hand.

"Yes, Nana?"

"May I be excused? I don't feel well," she said, mimicking an excuse Naruto had used in one of his later classes the day before. Sakura gave her a look, but Nana just shook her head, a silent gesture to tell her not to worry.

Mr. Luster narrowed his eyes at her, and then nodded before continuing the example on the board.

Nana paused outside of the doorway, and looked around, trying to spy the red headed menace that she'd seen a moment earlier. She saw a glimpse of him as he entered a doorway, and quickly followed him into it.

She blinked in surprise when she saw that it was a library, with actual books. There were no books in Stagnare. Every textbook, novel, or picture book was available on her Life System. Except books required money that she didn't have. Money that went to the apartment she had stayed in when she was nine, groceries, and other necessities. Then, when she was kidnapped, she didn't have access to the books, and she still didn't have money.

She walked to the nearest book, and opened it, breathing in the musty scent, and admiring the black symbols on white. The necklace was still having a hard time discerning the words, but she didn't need to read them. She wanted to feel them.

A flash of red hit her peripheral vision, and she looked over, seeing the boy she was looking for.

She glared at him, and then set the book aside, before going over and grabbing him by the wrist, dragging him away from the book he'd been reading.

Nana looked around, trying to find a place that was quiet so they could talk, ignoring the questions the red head hurled her way. She saw a familiar sign, and headed towards it. She paused outside, listening, and then barged in.

"What are you doing?" Gaara asked her as she backed him against the wall.

Nana looked at him, and said, "I know you're Sand Man. What I want to know is what you're doing with Naruto?"

Gaara looked around the bathroom, and sighed, "I was wondering if you saw me when you grabbed my turban, but you still don't have proof, and Naruto won't believe you if you don't have proof. And I will kill you if he asks me about it," he said, glaring at her.

Nana shivered, sure that he would do it. "I know that, but what I want to know is why you're fighting him, when it's obvious you're doing your best not to hurt him!"

He turned away, and said, "I don't have to tell some girl that he's known for two days."

Nana glared at him, and then sighed. _Disperse_.

"Wh-What?" Gaara stuttered, trying to force himself even further back into the wall as Naruto loomed over him.

"See? I'm not just some girl he met," he said, his voice soft. "I am Naruto, and something is messed up with this world, and Tsunade wants me to fix it."

The red head glared up at him, "Yeah, right. For all I know, you can transform to show whatever will make me trust you."

Naruto frowned, then sighed. He took off the shirt that Tsunade had given him before he had left her world, and then pointed at the Life System, "I don't think anyone would be able to transform, and show you this. This is built into me, something that's normal in my world, but not normal here."

The sea-foam eyes watched him, and Gaara lifted a hand, and said, "May I?"

Naruto nodded, and watched as the red head touched the Life System.

"It's real. What's it made of?" Gaara asked as he drew his hand away.

"A type of plastic. All the Life Systems are made out of plastic, but, from what I remembered, all of them were made out of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, while mine was the only one made out of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and, I think, some iron."

"Why is yours different?"

"Um, Tsunade said that my father created my Life System instead of letting it be created the normal way. She said that many people were disappointed in not being able to see his last accomplishment," Naruto said. He leaned away from the red head, and pulled his shirt on. Then he leaned against the wall by Gaara.

"So, he used you as an experiment."

"I suppose," Naruto said with a shrug. "I'd rather have been an experiment than what happened later. At least my being alive would make sense then."

Gaara frowned at him, "You're not Naruto. He wouldn't think like that."

"No, I'm not _your_ Naruto," he said with a grim smile. "I'm sure he's gone through his own rough patches, but I was...more than just being an experimental project, my whole life had been a set up before Tsunade rescued me."

There was a bang, and they looked over to see a boy standing in the doorway, staring at them.

The red head glowered at the boy, and he turned around, and ran out of the bathroom.

"This isn't the best place to talk about things from the 'villain's' point of view," Gaara murmured to him. He took out a slip of paper from his pocket, and jotted something down on it. "Here, meet me there later tonight."

Naruto took the slip of paper, and looked at it for a moment. He opened his mouth to ask Gaara a question, but the red head wasn't there. He sighed, "I need to just assume that whenever I take my eyes away from someone that they're not going to be there when I look back at them in this world."

He looked back down at the crude map and address, and wondered how he was going to get Sakura, or anyone to lead him there without asking too many questions.

* * *

><p>AN: Happy Halloween everyone!

The other day, I was thinking about the scene were T!Gaara sees himself smiling, and, uh, tears run down his eyes...and I was thinking, Gaara is so beautiful he can make himself cry! oTL That's not actually what's going on, but I just thought it was amusing.

If you're wondering why T!Gaara can see Angel!Naruto, that's because he and A!Gaara are the same person (kind of), and because A!Naruto is showing himself to A!Gaara, T!Gaara can see A!Naruto. (I'm really enjoying this storyline. =) ) Also, if you're wondering why T!Gaara doesn't refer to himself as his disguises like Naruto does as Nana, it's because he wasn't expecting to come across himself, and he's not going to interact with A!Gaara (at least he doesn't think he will). Naruto, on the other hand, knew he was going to come into contact with himself, so it was easier to start referring to himself as Nana.

You know, I wasn't planning on T!Gaara interacting with too many people, and yet, I can't seem to stop myself. Also, I have a tumblr, now. I'll probably talk about my fanfics, and whatnot on there. (I even uploaded some rough (rough) drawings on there of different dimensions. (Hahaha, I can draw well enough that you can get an idea of what I'm talking about, but not well enough to be...great...or worth anything. xD ))

Oh, and also, I'm not in chemistry, so the properties of the plastics is probably wrong. I looked it up on Wiki, but it's not a good resource when you're trying to be as realistic as possible. Oh, and Kakashi is 43, if you add fourteen years to his age in the manga right now. It is so weird thinking he's that old.

And, oh my gosh. I told you the last one was going to be the only long one, and her this one is long, too. oTL I'm sorry!


End file.
